Councils in England issue 190,000+ summons for non-payment of business rates in 2018-19: research
Councils in England issued an estimated 190,000 summons for non-payment of business rates between 1 April 2018 and 31 March 2019, research by real estate adviser Altus Group has suggested.
The company claimed the extent of legal action would fuel “claims that the system is seen to be criminalising firms struggling to cope with the ever increasing tax burden”.
Altus Group submitted freedom of information requests to all councils in England asking for details of how many businesses had been summonsed during the 12-month period in question.
It said details were provided on 1,740,073 out of the 1,933,963 non domestic properties liable for business rates, covering 90% of all properties on the Local Rating Lists.
Altus Group said the responses showed that a total of 171,018 summons were issued, being 9.83% of all premises. It therefore forecast that the overall number was likely to have been in the region of 190,070, “around 750 every single working day”.
The top five summonsing councils by volume were:
- Westminster – 6,882
- Birmingham – 6,166
- Manchester – 5,228
- Liverpool – 4,254
- Leeds – 3,497
The top five summonsing councils by percentage of premises sued were:
- Richmond & Wandsworth – 27.6%
- Islington – 23.3%
- Middlesbrough – 23.3%
- Liverpool – 22%
- Bracknell Forest – 20.3%
Robert Hayton, Head of U.K. Business Rates at Altus Group, claimed that the Government’s reliance upon property for tax revenues was too great with the findings going beyond simple tax avoidance.
He said that “with 1,255,800 of non domestic premises actually having rates liabilities to pay, in real terms 15.14% of firms, almost 1 in every 6 with an actual bill, received a summons to appear before a Magistrate during the last year.”
Hayton added that “a tax stimulus was desperately needed”, saying “major retail and hospitality businesses were reducing their estates and headcount often citing high level of rates as a contributory factor whilst other sectors, such as manufacturing, were hurting too.”
