Centre for Cities welcomes the announcement from Eric Pickles on business rate reform

Responding to the statement from Eric Pickles on business rate reform, Centre for Cities’ Chief Executive Alexandra Jones said: “We welcome the introduction of 50 percent additional...

Press release published on 17 May 2012

Responding to the statement from Eric Pickles on business rate reform, Centre for Cities’ Chief Executive Alexandra Jones said:

“We welcome the introduction of 50 percent additional business rates retention for local authorities. This will provide a real incentive for local government and planning authorities to bring forward new development to allow growing businesses to expand and new businesses to come to England.

“Centre for Cities research published last year on the past effect of nationalisation of business rates found evidence to suggest that relocalising rates will provide an incentive of around 1% growth per year. However, this estimate was produced with a stronger and simpler incentive system in mind, meaning the new system may not create the same results. Specifically, resetting the system every 7 years could create a situation where local government benefits by delaying development to the start of the next reset period.  At the next reset in 2020 we encourage the Government to  deliver on their stated aspiration to introduce 10 year resets at the very least.

“However even with these reforms more needs to be done to boost demand in the UK economy.”

For further information contact Rachel Tooby on 020 7803 4300 /r.tooby@centreforcities.org

Related reports: