Local traders in the areas surrounding shopping centres, such as Westfield Stratford may be due a much needed business rates reduction to reflect the loss of trade. This would indeed be a welcome bonus to many as they struggle to stay afloat.

After the opening of Westfield’s centre in Shepherds Bush RatesRecovery were successful in obtaining business rates savings of up to 30%.

With the chancellors proposed record UBR multiplier increase due to come into effect in April, it is essential for your property to be appealed and looked at by our inspections team to ensure you are paying the correct rateable value.  On inspection, we do not just measure the premises but also look for the possibilities of claiming temporary rate reliefs which could provide you with a significant rates reduction in the short term.

STOP….don’t just pass it for payment.

LOOK…..and check, has your rateable value increased?

Do you understand your bill? Do the instalments add up?  If you are in any doubt contact your council’s business rates team.  The number will be on your bill.  Be patient as they are notoriously understaffed, calls are often not answered and emails do not receive an immediate reply.

Log each call and email and note the name of the person you speak to (assuming you’ve been lucky enough to get through).  If you receive reminders for non-payment don’t ignore them; the council may not have allocated your payment correctly. If you receive notice of a summons for non-payment of your rates bill, don’t panic, contact your council’s business rates team immediately; often the problem can be resolved and summons costs waived.

If you need help and advice with your rates payments, or feel you are paying too much, then contact www.ratesrecovery.com. We are chartered surveyors with over forty years experience and you will actually find someone who you will be able to speak to straightaway and who will take time to LISTEN to you.

1. The specialist brain surgeon, renowned throughout the Country, with years of experience of performing similar operations combined with ground breaking innovations in the field of brain surgery.

2. Your local G.P doctor who once read a text book on it and spends most of his days handing out antibiotics and looking at sore throats.

This is surely an easy decision, right?

Whilst I would not try and elevate our status to that of the life saving surgeon, the analogy does hold true. Increasingly RatesRecovery are finding smart companies turning their backs on using general practice property consultancies in favour of boutique specialist advisers. As the large London practices churn through big corporate instructions using an army of graduates and inexperienced staff it is not surprising that they fail to meet clients expectations every time.

Companies are wising up. By selecting specialists to make up a panel of advisers they are securing better results, better service and in the case of our clients saving more money in business rates.

The Government are doing very little to assist businesses who are suffering despite clear evidence from established retailers such as Peacocks entering into administration or those downsizing, for example Thornton’s. Business Rates are one of the largest costs to any business; increasing Uniform Business Rates will only exacerbate the financial problems many are facing. Surely reducing this liability is paramount to many businesses survival and is something RatesRecovery feels passionate about.

It is predicted that a rise of 5.6% will generate in excess of £1.3 billion in revenue during the course of the 2012-2013 financial year, an increase of over £350 million. But is the Government being short sighted? What will be lost from the public purse when the real cost of business closures is taken into account? Can such a large increase in Business Rates be absorbed or will this be a ticking bomb for further business failures?

Increases for business rates are driven by the Retail Prices Index.  September figures show 5.6%, which means the April 2012 rates increase will be at this level.  The ability to defer some of the increase would have been a welcome relief to occupiers already facing a tough 2012.  The scheme is likely to be introduced later in the year.  Time will only tell if the chancellor will deliver on his promise!

Whilst it is accepted that all new systems suffer from teething troubles, it is surely totally unacceptable to have to send three reminder emails just to receive an acknowledgement. This seems to be the case, certainly with the London zone.

Valuation Office red tape is frustrating at the best of times, not least when it comes to the 2010 rating appeals procedures. Why exacerbate matters by not undertaking the simplest of tasks; this can only be excused by human error or complacency.

Equally infuriating is the desire of a number of valuation office employees to refuse to action an alteration (without giving good reason), when it is clear that an error has been made; unless the matter is taken to a higher level.

It seems to me that no-one is prepared to make a decision off their own back for fear of reprisals. This begs the question, ‘Could it be that Valuation Office employees are in doubt about their own ability to perform the task in hand?’

Will it save the High Street?  Debatable if you ask us.  Ms Portas seems to be advocating an increase in the power and use of Business Improvement Districts (BID’s) together with ensuring landlords and developers become stakeholders in the process.  This is probably a good thing however many of her other recommendations seem vague and frankly unachievable.  A national market day?  Surely “gimmick” is the only word that can apply here?

One of the biggest issues facing high street retailers is the high level of business rates that are crippling many businesses and forcing them to close on a daily basis.  Ms Portas should have concentrated more on this issue than the gimmicks.

Business rates are understood to be the third largest cost of running a business. That’s why we approached our retail clients in 2007 asking them if they would like us to attempt to try and agree their rates before they came into effect; we called this process ‘prior agreement’. The benefits were obvious; there was to be no overpayment of rates, not really a hard sell!

The traditional system of business rates appeals involves submitting an appeal and then waiting up to three years before it is settled.  Surely, if possible, it makes sense to try and agree rateable values before they come into effect?  Fortunately the Valuation Office Agency agreed with our approach and provided all the support necessary to make it happen.

As always it is the enlightened businesses that benefit from new innovative ideas. As clients of RatesRecovery Specsavers, Mothercare, Arcadia & Blockbuster all recognised the immediate benefit of our approach. The exercise reduced their business rates liability by over £6,000,000.  Many other retailers were less enlightened; even less so were their business rates agents who adopted a very short term view, mainly related to income protection and cash flow.

Martin O’Neill, a director at RatesRecovery commented “how many retailers would now welcome a reduction in their annual rates liability of £1,000,000″