Property
New laws will reverse effects of ‘staircase tax’
West Midlands businesses have been given a boost with an option to get their business rates bills recalculated and any savings backdated – potentially amounting to hundreds of thousands of pounds. The new legislation will reverses
the effects of what is known as the ‘staircase tax’, according to property firm Lambert Smith Hampton (LSH). It is an opportunity for
businesses that occupy multiple, consecutive floors within the same building to potentially save hundreds of thousands of pounds, depending on the size and location of their business. Mark Clapham, head of ratings at
LSH in Birmingham, said the Government had introduced enacted legislation which would help businesses who have suffered from increases in their annual business rates thanks to the ‘staircase tax’, which came about following a Supreme Court judgement known as ‘the Mazars Case’. Following this judgement, the Valuation Office Agency has
totalled £2.73m – a 25 per cent increase in rateable value back to the 1 April 2015. This resulted in an unexpected retrospective rates bill of over £550,000 for the business. The impact of the Mazars judgement also meant small businesses operating in adjoining units, such as serviced offices, accessed purely via a common corridor and not internally, would receive separate rate bills for each unit – thereby losing out on claiming small business rate relief. Mr Clapham said: “This
Rates relief: Mark Clapham
backdating rating assessments all the way back to 2010, in some cases. This has resulted in increases in rate liability for many businesses, the most significant of which relate to offices in city centres, Mr Clapham said. For example, a large office
assessment in a Northern city comprising 10 floors that was originally assessed as one unit at £2.175m was split into 10 separate assessments (floor by floor) which
legislation now returns to the previous assessment approach whereby the adjoining units in this situation would be assessed as one. “The Government eventually fully
acknowledged the unfairness of these situations and committed to reversing the unintended consequences of the Mazars Case. “As a specialist in business rate
valuations and appeals, I welcome this legislation. Further regulations are anticipated to enable the outworking of the Act.”
Sector Focus Planning team
retains top spot Savills’ planning division - with a Birmingham-based team servicing the Midlands - has maintained its position as the No.1 national planning consultant in ‘Planning’ magazine’s annual consultancy survey for the fourth consecutive year. The survey reveals Savills as
the largest employer of chartered town planners with a total of 179. The company says growth
has been achieved through the launch of a dedicated heritage team, an expanded economics team and a new planning team established in Newcastle. Paul Rouse, head of the
Savills Birmingham planning team, said: “I am delighted that for the fourth year in a row Savills is at number one in the national list of consultants. “This is an unprecedented
run at the top and I am grateful to everyone in the Birmingham team. This underlines our strength across all of the main land use sectors allied to our unrivalled geographical coverage.”
February 2019 CHAMBERLINK 79
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