Business Rates – Check, Challenge...Legislate?

An industry-wide letter has been sent to the Joint Committee on Statutory Instruments concerning proposed changes to the business rates appeals system. New Regulations governing rates appeals are proposed to come into effect from 1 April 2017. However, the Regulations have yet to be laid before Parliament. Further, the Department of Communities and Local Government (DCLG) has failed to respond to the outcome of its own consultation on the appeal changes which closed on 11 October 2016. The situation is now time critical with the 1 April 2017 Revaluation about to come into effect at the same time as the new appeals regime.

We are extremely concerned that DCLG has not commented on the consultation and that there is complete uncertainty surrounding what is happening with the new appeals regime.