Green Initiatives for Business Rates

The Government has published a technical consultation on reforms to the business rates system in England. This follows on from the Chancellor’s Budget Announcements in October 2021.
We will outline the proposed changes in a series of Articles, this being the first.
From April 2023, the government will introduce an exemption for eligible plant and machinery used in onsite renewable energy generation and storage, and a 100% relief for eligible low-carbon heat networks that have their own rates bill. These exemptions will last from April 2023 until 2035.
The object of the exemption will be to bring onsite generation and electricity storage from renewables (plus electricity storage used for EVCP) into line with renewables being used to export electricity to the grid (where an exemption already applies). Included in the exemption will be supporting equipment like transformers, dynamos, cables and conductors – in addition to items used for energy generation like solar panels.
Some plant and machinery may not be used only in relation to renewable energy. To benefit from the exemption, it is proposed that plant and machinery must be used for the generation, storage, transformation, or transmission of power where the source of the energy for that item of plant and machinery is wholly or mainly renewables. So, for example, if a property had 3 sources of power – a solar panel, an oil generator and the grid – the exemption would apply to those parts of the energy system which were being used wholly or mainly for the generation, storage, transformation or transmission of power from the solar panel.
In order to further support the decarbonisation of buildings, the government would also like to provide 100% rate relief to heat networks which are separately assessed and so have their own rates bill. This will take effect from 1 April 2023 and will last until 31 March 2035. Heat networks are somewhat niche at present, but this is expected to change as carbon reduction measures expand.