Empty rates clampdown is ‘cuckoo’

The government has been told it is “living in cuckoo land” if it thinks that clamping down on empty property relief for business rates is a sensible idea. Landlords and occupiers have reacted with disbelief after the Treasury and the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities launched a consultation about business rates avoidance last month. Officials are concerned that the empty property relief, which grants landlords or occupiers a three-month rates holiday when their shop, warehouse or office is not being used, is “not working as intended”. About £8bn of relief will be granted this year. The Local Government Association estimates that around £250m of that will be lost to business rates avoidance. However, John Webber, head of business rates at Colliers, said the civil servants who were working on the consultation “don’t live in the real world”. “If you think it’s a good time to introduce [changes] like this now, then you’re living in cuckoo land,” he added. The Times (£)