Investment management company Colliers has decried the likely delay in business rate consultation until later this year – a move widely expected to be announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak today.
John Webber Head of business rates at Colliers, said: “If this is the case we seem to have a Chancellor who has followed in a long line of Chancellors in kicking the issue of business rates down the road. The Government has delayed its announcement four times in the last year. We were supposed to hear in the autumn, then in the New Year, then in the Budget and now it’s the autumn again. This is despite the Treasury Select Committee producing a very credible report with sensible recommendations in Autumn 2019, which now seems to have been ignored - not to mention all the consultations and reviews we’ve had in previous years.
“It’s all very well for the Chancellor to say he is postponing the report to the autumn to allow him to make decisions when the economic uncertainty caused by the coronavirus pandemic has receded. But that really is shutting the stable door when the horse has bolted. Procrastinating over this now is only going to mean more job losses across the economy - long before the autumn arrives.”