Occupiers could benefit from rating ruling; call for more EPR changes – Lambert Smith Hampton
Lambert Smith Hampton says occupiers in multi-storey office buildings could benefit from a recent court ruling on rating assessments. The decision, made in relation to Tower Bridge House in London, “has opened up the opportunity to merge rating assessments of floors within office buildings that are within the same occupation, but which are not adjacent,” the firm notes.
Before this ruling, occupiers of multiple floors within a single building that were separated by the occupation of another party required more than one rating assessment. Lambert Smith Hampton says such occupiers could generate significant rate savings by effecting mergers in circumstances of this type. It notes that the Valuation Office Agency may appeal against the decision, but in its view such an appeal “is unlikely to succeed”.
The latest issue of LSH’s Rating in Brief provides information on other ratings matters – including the proposed localisation of business rates, and a look at the prospects for a decline in rateable values at the 2015 revaluation – and is available here.
It also includes a call for the government to go further on Empty Property Rates, with LSH noting that the Chancellor has appointed a working group to set out proposals for change to the EPR legislation that it describes as “an unmitigated disaster since its introduction”. Among the new proposals is understood to be a three-year EPR exemption for new developments, which LSH says is designed to remove the unexpected rental void as a reason for not developing new Grade A commercial property.
The firm says that while it welcomes the Chancellor’s initiative, it does not go far enough on its own, and has called in addition for the abolition of downwards phasing in England, in order to speed up the positive effect of rates reductions for occupiers; hardship relief for businesses for a maximum of one year, funded from a central pot; and centrally funded discretionary relief for businesses holding partially occupied premises.
“Together, these initiatives would energise the commercial property development cycle, bringing more high-quality stock into the marketplace and, importantly, generating much-needed jobs in the construction sector. Ideas for kick-starting the economy abound. This time the government must listen to the experts and act on our advice,” Lambert Smith Hampton says.
