Government announces draft UBR and Transitional Arrangements for England

The Government has issued a consultation on the transitional arrangements for the 2017 business rates revaluation. Representations should be made by  the 26th October 2016 to the DCLG.

The highlights from the document are:

1. The current UBR poundage is forecast to drop in 2017/18 to 48.0p in the £ down from 49.7p in 2016/17
2. From 2018/19 annual uplifts will be based on RPI
3. “Global” rateable value for England for the 2017 List increases by 9.1% compared with current RVs (Wales RV drops by 2.9%)
4. Complex Transitional Relief arrangements proposed for England with 3 sizes of property (above £100K , £20k to £100K, £20k and below). Arrangements for relief and penalty become less generous as size increases. The allowances on large properties are the most controversial:- Maximum uplift in 2017/18 will be 45% whereas the annual allowances for maximum reduction for yrears 1 to 5 will be 4.1%,4.6%, 5.9%, 5.8% and 4.8%. All reductions and penalties are in today’s money and may have RPI imposed additionally

New 2017 RVs are set to be announced from tomorrow and MUA will be notifying 2017 retained clients of these in the next few days.