I apologize straight away for stating the obvious here, as I’m sure many of you will be painfully aware of the current cost of doing business crisis we’re experiencing in the UK.
This is set to worsen in October, as the two-year fixed price energy supply deals of thousands of businesses come to an end. Many SMEs are expecting their energy bills to quintuple when they renegotiate their rate, a blatantly unsustainable rise that could spell the end for an estimated 440,000 businesses unless something is done.
While measures have been put in place for households to weather the cost of living crisis, far less has been done to shield businesses from the cost of doing business crisis. Rising energy prices hit both home and work hard, but commercial properties usually take a bigger hit due to their greater energy consumption.
But while energy prices are at the mercy of global factors, business rates are not. And many independent advocates of leisure, the high street, and SMEs in general, have been calling on any new government to reform the business rates system as a matter of urgency before a “doomsday winter” puts the livelihood of many at risk.
Calls for a business rates reform are nothing new but have ramped up significantly over the past few years as the current rating system comes to a close. But aside from vague remarks and ambiguous promises, we’ve seen no concrete evidence that any such fundamental shake-up is on the cards. At least not soon.
This leaves hundreds of thousands of businesses seemingly stuck between a rock and a hard place, paying a heavily disputed commercial property tax (that’s often grossly overestimated) while their energy bills rocket to astronomical levels. It’s time for businesses to take matters into their own hands.
A comprehensive business rates audit can identify areas in which you the business owner may have been unknowingly overpaying on your rates bill. Once corrected, you can expect to see your bill significantly reduced moving forward and overpayments debited back to you in the form of a rebate. Rebates can date back to the start of this rating period in 2017, or when you first moved into the property.
CPA offers this service on a no-win-no-fee basis and only invoices for a pre-agreed percentage of the savings. We take on all the risk and invest all the time. Two things that simply aren’t affordable for businesses in the current climate.
I’m not saying a business rates review is the solution to all your woes during the cost of doing business crisis, but it could provide a valuable life raft to your business, during a time when calls for help at a government level are falling on deaf ears.
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