Barely a month into his tenure as Chancellor of the Exchequer, Jeremy Hunt (pictured above) has released the government’s Autumn Statement 2022.
Addressing the House of Commons in his speech on November 17, Hunt said “today we deliver a plan to tackle the cost-of-living crisis and rebuild the economy”.
In his first few days of office the Chancellor had already reversed most of the measures implemented by his predecessor Kwasi Kwarteng. The Autumn Statement set out further steps on taxation and spending in an effort to combat widespread economic disruption, increased national debt, rising energy costs and rising inflation.
On the subject of business rates, Mr Hunt announced a new government-funded Transitional Relief scheme, as called for by the CBI, the British Retail Consortium (BRC), the Federation of Small Businesses, and others. The scheme is anticipated to benefit around 700,000 UK businesses.
“Nearly two thirds of properties will not pay a penny more next year and thousands of pubs, restaurants and small high street shops will benefit,” the Chancellor claimed.
BRC response
Responding to the Autumn Statement, Helen Dickinson, CEO of the BRC (pictured left), said: “The announcements today show the Government has heard the concerns of the retail industry. “Retailers are working incredibly hard to support customers – expanding value ranges, fixing the prices of essential items, and offering discounts to vulnerable households.”
She added: “The Government has taken an essential step towards longer term reform of the broken business rates system by announcing the scrapping of downwards phasing of transitional relief.
“This decision means that April’s bills reflect market conditions and retailers will pay only what they owe, rather than being forced to overpay their rates bill when the value of their property has already fallen. This represents the first step towards a more fundamental reform of the broken business rates system.”
Among the measures announced in the Autumn Statement were:
- The income tax additional rate threshold will be reduced from £150,000 to £125, 40.
- The threshold at which workers start paying National Insurance contributions (NICs) will be raised from £9,880 to £12,570.Business Rates - Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief - Support for eligible retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses is being extended and increased from 50 percent to 75 percent.
- Business rates relief up to £110,000 per business in 2023-24. Around 230,000 RHL properties will be eligible to receive this increased support worth £2.1 billion.
- Business Rates - Transitional Relief Scheme - Upwards Transitional Relief will support properties by capping bill increases caused by changes in rateable values at the 2023 revaluation. The ‘upward caps’ will be five percent 15 percent and 30 percent, respectively, for small, medium, and large properties in 2023-24, and will be applied before any other reliefs or supplements.
- Business Rates - Supporting Small Business Scheme (SSBS) - Bill increases for the smallest businesses losing eligibility or seeing reductions in SBRR or Rural Rate Relief (RRR) will be capped at £600 per year from April 1, 2023. This is support worth over £500 million over the next three years and will protect over 80,000 small businesses who are losing some or all eligibility for relief. This means no small business losing eligibility for SBRR or RRR will see a bill increase of more than £50 per month in 2023-24
- Business Rates - Improvement Relief - At Autumn Budget 2021, the Government announced a new improvement relief to ensure ratepayers do not see an increase in their rates for 12 months as a result of making qualifying improvements to a property they occupy. This will now be introduced from April 2024. This relief will be available until 2028, at which point the Government will review the measure.
For more information you can visit the Government website and download a copy of the Autumn Statement by clicking the buttons below.
