Westfield continues to examine new growth opportunities in the UK specifically in London with the owner of the freehold of the Whitgift shopping centre in Croydon. Speculation has been fuelled by the sale of their stakes in the Belfast, Guildford and Tunbridge Wells centres for £159m to Hermes. The sales come after Westfield revealed last November that it had entered into “exclusive arrangements” with the owner of the freehold of the Whitgift shopping centre in Croydon to become development partner. But at what cost will this come to the local high street retailer? Continue reading
Local Retailers Struggle To Stay Afloat
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Tagged business rates reductions, Westfield shopping centre
Inspections Lead To Business Rates Refunds
Have your altered your business premises? Are you paying for elements such as air conditioning that you do not have? If so, you may well be in line for a business rates reduction. One of the key components of an appeal is to carry out an inspection of the premises to determine if there are any differences in floor areas or specification. For example, on visiting one of our clients in Kent, we found there was a 100m2 difference in areas in favour of our client, which we would not have discovered had we not inspected the property. Continue reading
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Tagged busi, business rates advice
Stop, Look And We Will Listen! Business Rates Bills Due
Within the next month or so your new business rates bill will be arriving in the post.
STOP….don’t just pass it for payment.
LOOK…..and check, has your rateable value increased? Continue reading
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Tagged business rates
Companies turn to specialists to generate big business rates savings
Brain tumour……one operation could save your life. Who do you choose to do it?
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Tagged business rates, business rates advice, professional advice, ratesrecovery
Uniform Business Rate Time Bomb
If adopted by the Government, September’s 5.6% increase in the Retail Price Index will be reflected in April’s rise to the Uniform Business Rate Multiplier which is set to be the highest in 20 years. Continue reading
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Tagged business rates, retail price index, uniform business rates
Occupiers must wait for help!
Occupiers must pay next April’s record rise in business rates in full. George Osborne recently announced in his Autumn Statement that businesses would be able to defer up to 60% of Aprils record increase over the following two years. However, as a result of time restraints the Department for Communities and Local Government has advised local authorities to charge for the full rise. Continue reading
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Tagged business rates, business rates advice
Is the new Valuation Office email system working properly?
I strongly suspect not! When the new Valuation Office structure was introduced in November 2011 the email addresses to which correspondence is directed also changed to a centralised inbox in each area (just like before, however the areas are now considerably larger). Continue reading
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Happy Christmas
Father Christmas came early for one RatesRecovery client this week when we negotiated a £300,000 saving for them. To everyone else may we wish you a very ‘Happy Christmas’ and best wishes for a profitable 2012. We look forward to saving even more in business rates for you next year !
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Tagged business rates, business rates advice, business rates savings, ratesrecovery
Queen of Shops – Can this really save the High Street?
The much awaited Mary Portas report into saving high street retailing was unveiled today. You can find a report on it here http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-16153541 Continue reading
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Tagged business rates, business rates advice, retailers
‘Fortune favours the brave’
The above statement has never been more pertinent for retailers than now.
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! Continue reading
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Tagged business rates, business rates savings, retailers, valuation office
