Business rates

A package to help all businesses in England with the cost of business rates, with particular support for the smallest businesses has been announced. The following measures are introduced from 1 April 2014:

• businesses with retail and food and drink premises with a rateable value of up to £50,000 will receive a discount of £1,000 on their business rates for a period of two years (subject to state aid limits)
• the RPI rate increase will be capped at 2% for one year
• a 'reoccupation relief' will be introduced which will provide a 50% business rates discount for 18 months where businesses move into retail premises that have been empty for more than 12 months. Businesses which move into empty premises between 1 April 2014 and 31 March 2016 will be eligible for the relief (subject to state aid limits)
• businesses will be allowed to pay their rates in 12 monthly instalments, rather than 10
• the doubling of the Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) will be extended for a further 12 months to April 2015
• the SBRR criteria will be amended to allow businesses in receipt of SBRR to keep it for one year when they take on an additional property that would currently cause them to lose SBRR.

Comment

The doubling of the SBBR will mean that around 360,000 of the smallest businesses will continue to receive 100% relief from business rates until April 2015, with around a further 180,000 benefiting from tapering relief.

Retail Export Scheme

HMRC has consulted on options for making the Retail Export Scheme easier to use and will publish a formal Summary of Responses before the end of 2013.

Fuel duty

The planned increase in fuel duty set to take place in September 2014 has been cancelled. The Government will instead freeze fuel duty for the remainder of this parliament. This equates to a saving of £680 for a typical motorist, £1,300 for a small business with a van, and £21,000 for a haulier by 2015/16.