High street businesses have been warned to expect a significant increase in their business rates in the months to come.
Retail experts fear that the bills will jump almost 20 per cent next year, with the total revenue collected set to pass £8billion for the first time.
The increase on the horizon has been calculated by referring to the Retail Price Index, which is used by the UK Government to set the annual level of business rates.
The situation has been made more difficult by the fact that a retail relief scheme will be coming to an end next March.
Business rates expert Jerry Schurder suggested that ministers would be well-advised to extend the relief to help beleaguered businesses.
“The Government’s piecemeal, sticking-plaster approach to business rates is clearly flawed and makes the system more complicated than it need be,” he said.
“Rather than being able to accurately predict their bills for next year, retailers are left on tenterhooks waiting to see if some crumbs will be thrown down from the Chancellor’s table in his Autumn Statement.”
George Osborne recently confirmed that councils will soon be able to keep 100 per cent of the revenue they raise through business rates, but there was widespread disappointment that he did not put forward any plans for overhauling the system itself.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said that the issue needs to be looked at as a matter of urgency, or else online retailers will continue to profit at the expense of those on the high street.