Before yesterday’s fiscal statement from the UK’s Chancellor, businesses via the CBI had been calling for the Government to reconsider the planned April 2023 rise and for ‘urgent reforms’ to the business rates system.
Business rates had been expected to go up in line with inflation from April 2023, when a rate revaluation would also be started.
The Chancellor announced that the business rates multiplier would be frozen for another year, meaning that rates will no longer be increased in line with inflation from April but the revaluation exercise would still go ahead.
He also said there would be an extension of a rates discount for retail, leisure and hospitality businesses worth £2.1bn.
The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) stated that freezing thresholds will ‘hit small businesses’, and that the Chancellor’s growth measures ‘will not be enough to spark the needed economic recovery’.
The British Chambers of Commerce (BCC) said that the Statement is ‘unlikely to boost business confidence’.