Retailers have said that urgent action is needed to deal with the huge backlog of business rate appeals.
They warn that delays in refunding struggling shops put many retailers out of business. Figures have shown that appeals to HMRC’s Valuation Office stand at almost 250,000.
A spokesman for the British Retail Consortium (BRC) comments: “We get a lot of feedback from retailers who tell us they are having problems claiming money back. This is going to causing a big cash-flow problem, and it is often only the larger firms which have the resources to try appealing”.
The BRC estimates that increases to business rate have cost retailers £500m over two years and warns that 2013 increase is set to cost them an extra £175m.
Source: The Independent