So what's the problem?
Empty rates are...
- Causing the demolition of perfectly good buildings
- Stalling regeneration schemes
- Forcing business owners to lay off workers since they can no longer make the savings from vacating their premises
- Eating away at our pensions which are invested in commercial property
Interesting facts:
- New research has highlighted that the government's claims that empty rates would reduce rent levels and vacancy rates was misguided.
- A survey by the Business Centre Association shows that empty rates could cost local councils up to £690 million per year!
- Central government is paying over £3 million on empty rates in 2008-2009 alone!
- All experts agree that we are now in a much worse economic situation both in the property market and the 'real economy' than we were in the 1980s (when tax relief was first introduced)
- In fact, the commercial property sector has not seen capital values this low since records began in the late 1920s!
- The latest survey from the National Association of Pension Funds says 64% of UK pension funds have investments in property. This accounts for 7% of all UK pension fund assets – or around £70bn.
John Healey
Local Government Minister, Communities and Local Government Department
[Empty rates relief] was set, in the words of the 1983 White Paper in rates, in " period of recession." ... [The Rating [Empty Properties] Bill 2007] (which removes that relief) provides a power to return the empty property rate from the new level of 100 per cent of the basic occupied rate to a minimum of 50 per cent. It is a reserve power, which will ensure that in future any Government will have flexibiilty to respond to changing or prevailing conditions in the property market." 7 June 2007, House of Commons
British Property Federation's Overview Briefing Note
