Business rate increases capped at 2% increase

The Chancellor announced in last year’s Autumn Statement that the multiplier would be uprated by 2% for 2014/15, instead of the maximum of 3.2% (the level of RPI in September 2013). As a result, for 2014/15 the standard multiplier was set at 48.2p.

This was the first occasion, since the introduction of the National Non-Domestic Rate in 1990, that the multiplier was not uprated by the maximum possible percentage by Government. This has been extended for the forthcoming financial year in this year’s Autumn Statement.

Whilst an extension of the 2% cap would equate to limiting the upward inflationary increase by £83million next year for all sectors, it would still translate to an increase in business rates by £552 million next year for all sectors in England.