Trusted experts in business rates

The Autumn Budget introduced a significant package of business rates changes for England, including revised multipliers, expanded support for qualifying retail, hospitality and leisure properties and further changes to relief from April 2027. The impact will vary by property. Rateable value, use and relief eligibility will all influence future liabilities, making it increasingly important for property teams to understand how the changes apply across their estate.   New multipliers from April 2027 MHCLG has now confirmed the business rates multipliers for 2027/28: Standard multiplier: 49.7p (+1.7p) Small business multiplier: 44.7p (+1.5p) Standard RHL multiplier: 44.5p (+1.5p) Small business RHL multiplier: 39.5p (+1.3p) High-value multiplier: 52.5p (+1.7p)   For qualifying Small businesses, the multipliers will sit 5p below their corresponding standard and RHL multipliers. For property teams, this means future liability calculations will depend on correctly identifying which multiplier applies to each property. Read the latest Business Rates Information Letter   Further changes for retail, hospitality and leisure The Budget also introduced additional support for qualifying RHL properties from April 2027. Small Business Rates Relief thresholds will increase to £18,000 for full...

What if your next opportunity isn't a new client? For rating practices, growth is often measured by new instructions, expanding portfolios and securing relationships with new clients. But what if some of the most valuable opportunities are already sitting within the portfolios you manage? For over 25 years, we've seen first-hand how business rates inaccuracies and overpayments can go unidentified for years, often hidden within complex billing and valuation records. For your clients, investigating these issues could mean recovering overpayments and reducing unnecessary costs. For your practice, it presents an opportunity to expand your service offering, generate additional revenue and strengthen existing client relationships. The opportunity is compelling, but historically, accessing it has been easier said than done.   Could existing clients be the strongest source of future growth? Winning new business will always be important, but there is a strong commercial argument for making more of existing client relationships. Whether onboarding a new client or managing an established portfolio, looking beyond current liabilities could uncover valuable opportunities to recover additional business rates overpayments and deliver meaningful financial savings for...

A recent Court of Appeal decision has challenged a type of vacant property rates mitigation sometimes known as ‘box-shifting’. The approach involved temporarily placing boxes or other items into an otherwise empty property in an attempt to establish a period of occupation. Once the property became vacant again, the intention was to qualify for a further period of empty property rates relief. In City of London v 48th Street Holdings Limited & Anor [2026] EWCA Civ 970, the Court of Appeal found that, in the circumstances of the case, placing boxes into the offices purely to secure a business rates advantage was not enough to establish rateable occupation. The decision has wider relevance. Following the judgment, MHCLG asked billing authorities to review similar arrangements and other occupation schemes intended to reduce rates liability and to withdraw relief where they conclude that genuine qualifying occupation has not taken place. Read MHCLG's business rates information letter on the Court of Appeal decision Why this matters for property teams For organisations managing vacant property across larger estates, the ruling could result in greater...

Property and rating technology has become considerably more capable, but capability alone is not a measure of progress. The real test is whether that technology materially improves the way people work. For professionals, technology should make complex information easier to navigate, provide greater visibility across portfolios and reduce the administrative effort surrounding professional work. It should give people more time to apply their expertise, rather than simply giving them another system to manage. That distinction matters. Digitising an existing process does not necessarily improve it. Neither does adding functionality if users still need to move between systems, recreate information or spend time turning data into something they can actually use. The question we are challenging is not simply, "What can this platform do?" but "What does it allow professionals to do better?"   More functionality isn't always the answer Feature lists have traditionally made software easy to compare. They remain important, but they tell you very little about what using that technology will actually feel like. A platform may hold enormous amounts of information, but that information has limited value...

Business rates are a significant cost for many organisations, yet understanding whether historic liabilities were calculated correctly is not always straightforward. For organisations managing multiple properties, years of billing records can build up alongside changes in occupation, property information, reliefs and other adjustments. Even where robust processes are in place, the complexity of this information can mean potential historic discrepancies are not immediately apparent. So, why can an overpayment sometimes remain undiscovered for years? Business rates bills reflect a point in time A business rates bill does not exist in isolation. The amount charged can reflect a range of information and circumstances applicable during a particular period. Over several years, properties may change occupation, relief eligibility may change and billing adjustments may be applied. For larger or more complex portfolios, this can create a substantial historic record to understand. Identifying a potential discrepancy can therefore require more than looking at an individual bill. It may involve considering the wider history behind the liability and the information available at the relevant time. Property portfolios rarely stand still Organisations acquire, dispose of...