Chamber lobbies Chancellor on business rates

The Chamber will shortly be submitting its pre-Autumn Statement letter to the Chancellor and this year its sole focus will be on the issue of business rates.

The letter calls for five clear actions:

• Abandon up-rating business rates for the next two financial years (2014/2015 and 2015/2016). 
• Reintroduce immediately the 2015 business rates revaluation to realign property values. 
• Once revaluations have taken place any future increases should be an annualised CPI rate rather than a one-month snapshot. 
• From 2017 revaluations must be conducted annually. 
• Undertake a root and branch review to establish a flexible system that will reflect changes in economic conditions as they occur. 

This is not the first time that the Chamber, on behalf of its members, has made calls for issues around business rates to be addressed but this is the first time that it has been the sole focus of a letter to the Chancellor ahead of any major announcements.

This also mirrors the stance from the British Chambers of Commerce and other business organisations.