Retail still burdened by empty property rates
By Ben Sillitoe - 05:23PM - Thu 21st October 2010
The retail industry is still held back by the existence of empty property rates, according to the British Property Federation (BPF).
CEO of the organisation Liz Peace said this week’s Comprehensive Spending Review (CSR) failed to remove this burden, which she claimed is “seriously damaging the retail sector as a whole”.
Prior to Chancellor George Osborne’s speech in the House of Commons yesterday the BPF had urged the government to reinstate property tax relief for empty shops - a system removed by the previous administration.
It noted that this tax hurts occupiers as much as landlords because many retailers own their shops or have long-term leases they are unable to walk away from.
Peace commented: “The enhanced economic activity that would have resulted from reinstating this relief would have compensated for a substantial part of the lost tax revenue.”
She added that such a measure would also help put the retail sector on the road to recovery just as an estimated 490,000 public sector workers will be looking for alternative work following yesterday’s cuts.
Meanwhile the British Council of Shopping Centres (BCSC), which with 2,600 members sees itself as a collective voice for the retail property sector, is also campaigning for a change to empty property taxation policy.
Speaking earlier this week, Executive Director at the BCSC Edward Cooke said: “Our industry has the capacity to create employment, but remains handicapped by this financial burden.
“If government wants to realise its aspiration for private sector led economic recovery then we believe it must work with our industry to establish ways for the retail and retail property sectors to contribute to this objective.”
You can read more about the BCSC’s work in Retail Gazette’s Big Interview with the group’s Public Affairs Manager Philippa Latimer on Monday.