Business rates review report delayed
05-03-2021
The Government has announced that the final report of its fundamental review of business rates will be delayed and will be published in the autumn.
It says that by then there should be greater clarity about the economic situation and the future of the public finances.
The review was announced by Rishi Sunak at his Budget a year ago and a call for evidence was published last July.
A summary of responses to this call for evidence is set to be published in an interim report on 23 March 2021.
Business rates have become a politically charged topic with online retailers generally paying much less in business rates than their high street counterparts do.
Online retailers have been able to continue trading throughout the pandemic while most high street retailers have been forced to close for months or weeks at a time.