Shops in 2 out of every 3 Villages, Towns & Cities will see property values for tax rise in April

• Shop Tax ‘Hotspots’ revealed
• Southwold and Blaenavon biggest losers with Merthyr Tydfil and Yeovil biggest winner 

According to CVS Business Rent & Rates Specialists, of the 424,110 shops located in the 1,149 villages, towns and cities across England and Wales, Rateable Values- used to calculate business rates- will rise in April in 791 of those locations.

The research carried out by CVS, and recently expanded on in The Guardian, shows that, on average, Rateable Values for shops in England and Wales will rise in April by 8.51% with 507 villages, towns and cities seeing rises in excess of that.

Shops in England and Wales currently account for 82% of all retail properties liable for business rates, which include superstores, large food stores and department stores. 21.54% of every property liable for rates (1 in 5) are classified as shops.

The Government has now adjusted the Rateable Values of every business property in England and Wales to reflect changes in the property market. The new Rateable Value will be used to determine the basis of the tax calculation for rates in April.

The Revaluation of business properties usually happens every 5 years but was controversially delayed by 2 years as a result of the economic downturn. The last Revaluation came into effect on 1st April 2010 based on the property market as long ago as 1st April 2008.

However, according to the detailed analysis from CVS Surveyors, new Rateable Values published show that total Rateable Values for shops overall have increased by a staggering £654million.

Their analysis shows that the 424,110 shops liable for rates across England and Wales had a combined Rateable Value of £7.69billion based on the last property assessment in 2010, which has formed the basis of rates bills for the last 7 years, but this has increased to £8.34billion.

The analysis shows shops in Southwold, Blaenavon, Dolwyddelan, Port Isaac, Rhymney, Kenley and Corwen will also see their shop property assessments increase overall by over 100%.

The 79 shops in the seaside town of Southwold on the Suffolk coast are the biggest losers in the rates shake up as they face an increase of 152.48% in Rateable Value. The 58 shops located in Blaenavon, at the gateway to the South Wales Valleys, will see their Rateable Values rise by 135.71%.

The analysis also shows that shops in 19 villages, towns and cities will see no overall change to their property assessments, and 338 locations will see a fall.

The biggest winner under the April tax shake up are the 337 shops in Merthyr Tydfil. Their combined Rateable Values- used to calculate new tax bills in April- will fall by 46.53% and the 313 shops in Yeovil will see an overall fall of 33.08%.

Mark Rigby, CEO of CVS Business Rent & Rates Specialists said;

“The purpose of a business rates Revaluation is to try and achieve fairness by ensuring that tax liabilities are based upon up-to-date rental values.

“Revaluations create ‘winners’ and ‘losers’ as ratepayers’ liabilities are shifted in line with relative movements in property values since the previous Revaluation.

“April will serve a ‘hammer blow’ to shops, and the consideration should now be to ensure that they will in fact be paying fair and accurate rates.

“It will also be interesting to see how bricks and mortar shops will compete with agile, online retailers which aren’t battling against exorbitant rent and rates bills for the next 5 years.”