CVS says 86% of pubs eligible for new rates discount
Nearly 30% of pubs in England will not pay any rates and 86% of the rest are eligible for the new pub discount, according to analysis by business rent and rates specialist CVS.
From 1 April business rates will not apply to any property with a rateable value of £12,000 or less. CVS suggests there are nearly 40,000 pubs in England liable for business rates, of which 11,740 have a rateable value below £12,000, meaning that, under the new measures, almost one in three pubs will not pay any business rates at all over the next five years.
Of the remaining 28,086 pubs, CVS says 24,375 have a rateable value less than £100,000 and are eligible for the new £1,000 pub discount announced in the budget, which is 86% of all pubs with a rates bill subject to state aid rules.
It added that there were 4,545 pubs in the South East eligible for the discount, an area expected to be hit by particularly high increases. Just 3,711 of the biggest pubs in England, which have a rateable value of more than £100,000, won't benefit from the discount.
However, property consultancy Gerald Eve recently reported that a maximum of 61% of pubs will benefit from the discount. It pointed out that the discount is subject to state aid limits, where only so much aid can go to any one pub company.
The British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) said larger pub-owning companies with managed premises might not be able to receive the business rates discount, or would be eligible only for part of it. In a report in the Guardian, it claimed it would expect 72%-75% to benefit from relief, as opposed to the 90% stated by the chancellor.
Mark Rigby, chief executive of CVS, said: "We specifically asked for discounts for rates bills for small pubs who have seen their numbers fall by over 11,000 during the current tax regime and have been adversely affected under the tax revaluation. That demand was met and both the chancellor and secretary of state should be congratulated on listening to the concerns of landlords of small pubs but, more importantly, acting upon those concerns with meaningful financial help."
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