VOA plans to shut offices and cut staff numbers

By Stuart Hicks, Director Pressure is piling up at the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) as it announces plans to cut the number of its offices from 52 to around 26. It seems a strange time... Continue reading

Director Stuart Hicks gains RICS’ Exec Committee appointment

Dunlop Heywood is delighted to announce that Director Stuart Hicks has been appointed to the Executive Committee of the Rating Diploma Holders’ Section of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors.   Continue reading

Budget & Business Rates – what it all means

By Stuart Hicks. Director After quite a few damp squib budgets when it came to business rates, this time around at least there was something to talk about. There were four headline points that even... Continue reading

List of shame of Local Authorities not progressing business rate relief

By Stuart Hicks – director The business rate system has been the subject of much scrutiny over recent years since the economic crisis. The system has been reviewed by the UK Government and most recently... Continue reading

Hammond set to offer sticking plaster budget for business rates

 By Adam Brooke, Rating. Some political pundits believe Philip Hammond is poised to offer a little salve to businesses in this month’s budget by not raising business rates by the maximum allowed next April. There... Continue reading

September RPI signals high business rate bills for 2018-19

With September’s Retail Prices Index (RPI) figure recently announced at 3.9% it will have far-reaching implications for owners and occupiers paying Business Rates. The RPI is important to Business Rates as it affects the Multiplier,... Continue reading