Ratings changes could hit retail warehouses

Retail warehouses are set to be hit following the publication of the Valuation and Lands Agency (VLA) which contains a new rating list for more than 65,000 commercial properties throughout Northern Ireland.

It has been revealed that warehouses should see, on average, a 28% hike in rate charges but, conversely petrol stations will see rates bills slashed by one fifth.

The list contains details of revised Net Annual Values (NAVs) or rateable values, which will be used to calculate commercial or non-domestic rates bills from April 1. Individual notifications of the new values are being posted this week to all occupiers of non-domestic properties.

Commenting on the publication of the new Valuation List, Nigel Woods, Chief Executive of the Valuation and Lands Agency, said: “The effect of this exercise will be to remove the inequities that have built up in the Valuation List since the previous revaluation in 1997. Revaluation will redistribute the rates burden and create a ‘level playing field’ for all non-domestic ratepayers."

Mr Woods said that the continuing use of rateable values, based on "outdated rental values", acts to distort the fair distribution of the rates burden between ratepayers. For example, business in areas that have experienced economic decline since the 1997 revaluation will be paying relatively too much in rates – whereas business in areas that have benefited from improved economic conditions in the intervening years will be paying relatively too little, he said.

The VLA says that revaluation will not increase the total amount of rates payable in Northern Ireland as a whole. The move will affects the distribution of the total rates burden between individual ratepayers and not the total amount of rates collected.

However NAVs should translate into proportionately lower rates-in-the-pound – which will not be known until each district council and the Department of Finance and Personnel complete their own calculations.

The small business sector throughout Northern Ireland is not adversely affected, with some reductions in areas that have experienced decline over the last six years.

(GMcG)