Government to impose appeal time limits?

As reported in The Times yesterday (article may be behind paywall ), Companies that wish to challenge their business rates bills are due to face stricter time limits, the Government has indicated, despite complaints that the appeals system is in disarray after a botched overhaul earlier in the year.

The Department for Communities and Local Government has said that there are “clear benefits to introducing a cut-off point for appeals” as it looks to reduce what it sees as speculative challenges to bills that “waste public resources” and “cause uncertainty for local authorities”. It is due to put forward proposals before April next year for setting a fixed time limit for appeals.

The MUA view is that introduction of a time limit now looks very probable, as the Government have a track record over the last few years of ignoring ratepayer discontent, the DCLG wording mirroring the Lord’s statement on the Motion of Regret last month. Without doubt this is bad news for ratepayers, who are struggling with the registration process, which is now required in England (only) before an appeal can be made or an agent recognised as able to represent the ratepayer. Whether it will achieve the Government aim is another matter, as appeal deadlines have a history of producing a flood of additional appeals in a short period of time, some of which may not have been made if allowed the luxury of additional time.

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