Scotland confirms next revaluation date as 1st April 2023

This announcement was followed quickly by the Welsh Government confirming that the same dates would apply in Wales.

The Scottish Government confirmed yesterday that their revaluation will also be delayed unit 1st April 2023.

This brings all home nations with the exception of Northern Ireland into the same revaluation cycle which is welcome by businesses with cross border portfolios.

However whilst England and Wales will be adopting an antecedent valuation date (AVD) of 1st April 2021 the Scottish Government has confirmed that their revaluation will be based on an AVD of 1st April 2022.

The logic behind the Scottish Government’s thinking is that this will allow more time for the markets to settle and reflect any longer term impact of the lockdown. As we head towards the last quarter of 2020 with continued uncertainly and localised lockdowns this may be a sensible move. We have long called for the gap between the AVD and the revaluation to be shortened to one year and we hope that one outcome from the ongoing fundamental review of business rates in England will be to adopt a one year gap to ensure that assessments are more reflective of the market.

We have continued to call on Government’s across the UK to implement substantial cuts to the UBR multiplier over the next two years to help all businesses recover from the Covid-19 Pandemic.

Review of Business Rates – Call for Evidence

We are approaching the cut off point for responses to tranche one of the Government’s Call for Evidence in relation to the Review of the Business Rates system in England.

We are making our own response but encourage you to engage and take the opportunity to put forward your own views where possible. We would be happy to discuss the issues and help you to prepare your own submissions to both the first tranche responses due on 18th September and the more detailed questions under tranche 2 which need to be returned by 31st October.