In response to the Chancellor’s mini budget yesterday, the Valuation Office Agency issued the following statement:
“…the Chancellor delivered the Spring Statement, which included bringing forward two green business rates reliefs measures.
“One of these is an exemption for green plant and machinery used in onsite renewable energy generation and storage, like rooftop solar panels, wind turbines or battery storage. The rates liability for these items will be removed from April 2022 until March 2035. Onsite storage used with electrical vehicle charging points will also be exempt.”
“You may recall that this exemption was included in the government’s Business Rates Review final report. Today’s announcement brings this measure forward a year, meaning it will be applied to the 2017 lists. It will be backdated to when the regulations came into force, which we expect to be on or around 1 April 2022.”
“The government also included more details on eligibility in the technical consultation published back in November. This is subject to new regulations and the VOA is developing plans to implement the exemption as soon as possible after that.”