The current business rates system is storing up “a tsunami” of appeals over the next seven months, according to an expert from real estate firm Colliers.
According to government (VOA) statistics, in the 27 months since the beginning of the 2023 list (1 April 2023 to 30 June 2025), 162,440 checks - the first part of the appeal process - were registered in England, of which 17,330 are still outstanding.
And 35,910 of these which progressed to the Challenge (second) stage of the process, well over half (56 per cent), were still outstanding nine months before the end of the three-year list.
Furthermore, only 9,340 (26 per cent) of Challenges had been resolved so far, with 6,410 (18 per cent) labelled as “incomplete” by the VOA and therefore struck out or declared void.
Given the difficulty for businesses in registering a Check in CCA in the first place, most firms have to use professional rating surveyors.
Colliers believes many businesses have up to now held back from registering their appeals.
But in the next seven months new Checks will begin to flood the already creakingly slow system as the deadline for the 2023 list approaches.
John Webber, head of business rates at Colliers, said: “Many businesses have only recently finished disputing their values from the 2017 list and are only now turning to look at the 2023 list.
“And for those businesses in the RHL (retail, hospitality and leisure) sectors who received reliefs on their business rates bills in the first two years of this list, the economic picture is now getting much tougher as the reliefs have been significantly cut and will soon disappear altogether.
“They will undoubtedly now consider disputing current rateable values.
“We think as businesses return from their summer holidays in September, they will start to put their appeals in against their current valuations.
“And looking at the numbers we at Colliers are already advising, we estimate there will be about 100,000 new appeals (checks) across the industry lodged over the next seven months.”
Mr Webber advises that businesses would be sensible to challenge their rates bills if they can.
As the VOA’s own figures reveal, 60 per cent of businesses who challenged their business rates valuations saw a reduced rateable value as a result and only 0.6 per cent saw an increase.
Fifty-four per cent of those who went onto the appeal stage also saw a reduction to their RV, with 0 per cent seeing an increase.
However, Colliers is concerned about how slow the system is to get such challenges resolved.
Mr Webber added: “The burden of business rates is too high and the lack of transparency about how bills are arrived at remains the root cause of this shocking number of people trying to appeal their rate bills.
“We believe the VOA is severely under resourced to deal with these numbers in the timeframe and will struggle. Businesses will miss out.
“We believe businesses need and deserve a better appeals system- and they need it now.”
