UK supermarkets and grocers will benefit from an almost £550 million tax cut over the next three years, according to new analysis. It comes after more than half a million retail properties in England and Wales were revalued as part of a shake-up to the business rates system of property taxes.
Analysis of official government data by commercial property advisory firm Altus Group found grocery firms will benefit from a roughly 10% decline in their values as a result of the changes. New rateable values, which will form the basis of business rates bills from April 1 2023 until March 31 2026, will now be based on data from 2021 after criticism from companies, including Tesco, that previous values were out of date.
As a result of the latest shake-up, larger supermarket stores will see their rateable values drop from £2.86 billion to £2.43 billion next year. Altus estimates that grocers will save around £218.64 million next year on their largest format stores as a result.