WORK to recalculate rates on over 75,000 non-domestic properties in Northern Ireland is set to begin, the Department of Finance has confirmed.
The department said yesterday that a non-domestic rates revaluation exercise is set to begin with a view to preparing a new list for use from April 2020.
Land & Property Services (LPS) will revalue all non-domestic, mainly business properties in the north for rates and the new values will be used to calculate future individual rate bills for businesses and organisations. It is hoped this will ensure that the rating system is more up to date, better reflecting local economic changes and making the system fairer. Due to the scale and complexity of the project, a two and a half year lead in time is required by LPS to revalue the sheer number of non-domestic properties, understood to be over 75,000.
The last revaluation of non-domestic properties in Northern Ireland was in 2015 and was based on April 2013 rental values.
The announcement has been well-received with the chief executive of Hospitality Ulster, Colin Neill describing it as welcome news.
"Hospitality Ulster has campaigned for regular revaluation of the business rates to avoid the issues that occurred the last time when some hospitality businesses saw their rates more than treble overnight."
"With rates on pubs and hotels calculated on their turnover it even more important that revaluations take place regularly to reflect market trends and also allow businesses to plan for any increases," he said.
While in favour of the revaluation, Mr Neill did express concerns over the current model used to calculate rates.
“We still have issues with the turnover model used to calculate rates on pubs and hotels with rising overheads driving down profit margins and pushing up turnover. It is time that actual profitability was taken into account as high turnover does not equate a high profit, nor indeed any profit.”
Director of the Northern Ireland Retail Trade Consortium, Aodhán Connolly is in favour of more frequent revaluations, but says more needs to be done to fix the "inherent inequity" of the current rates system.
"Retail accounts for only 12 per cent of the economy yet pays over 22 per cent of business rates. This needs to be changed immediately to allow our industry to continue to grow, invest and employ here."
Retail NI chief executive Glyn Roberts urged the LPS to learn from the mistakes of 2015.
“71 per cent of our members saw an increase in their rates bills following the last revaluation in 2015. This cannot be repeated in 2020."
“Business rates need radical reform and is the number one issue facing our members," he added.
