Never has so much been written by so few about so little….

By Stuart Hicks, Director

I am sure there aren’t many business people out there who were lucky enough to miss the Budget coverage last month but just in case there are a few stragglers below is a link to the Government’s own summary of what the Budget said about Business Rates.

The content has already been picked over by the media and businesses alike, but it was a short line in the introduction that caught my eye – this is the EIGHTH business rates information letter to be issued by the Department for Communities and Local Government this year – EIGHT!

I clicked on the link and surely enough there were 8 updates all listed, covering everything from the Spring Budget to rural rate relief, through to one that I have to label a misnomer – “Better billing and digitalisation measures”. I went into this one out of curiosity and was greeted with 3 paragraphs that really captured the Government’s dithering when it comes to business rates. I won’t spoil the surprise, you can read for yourself here:  https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/657442/BRIL_7_-_2017_-_Better_Billing.pdf but I can summarise in three words, or one per paragraph – promise, recant, waffle.

The Budget summary is here: https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/662390/BRIL_8_-_2017_-_Autumn_Budget.pdf

The previous missives and all 8 letters from the DCLG can be found here:

https://www.gov.uk/government/collections/business-rates-informationletters

Never has so much been written by so few about so little….