Finance: How do you rate?

Are you a winner or a loser? I mean that in relation to the business rates revaluation. It is an issue attracting not just lots of column centimetres in the press, but collective column metres.

The government has now revalued all 1.96m business properties in the country. From April 2017, rateable values will be based on a property’s rental value as of April 2015.

Revaluation has been delayed, meaning that new business rates will reflect changes in property prices over seven years. That could potentially double the rates of some business properties.

Business properties with a rateable value of under £12,000 will be removed from the system altogether, and a yearly rate increase cap has been set to soften the impact of rate increases on small businesses.