Reader's Letter Of The Day

It's not so much the content, that's all well-established and widely known, it's the fact that it was published in that most Home-Owner-Ist of rags, City AM (no link):

Every week there seems to be a new call for the "reform" (i.e. a reduction) of business rates.

But nobody seems to have realised that if business rates go down, the rent on the premises might simply be increased by the same amount. The only beneficiary of a reduction in business rates would then be commercial and retail property owners, not the businesses that rent the premises.

Much as I hate hidden taxes that disguise the size of the UK's bloated state from the average voter, this is one tax where the removal of it will do nothing for business competitiveness, and will simply require higher taxes elsewhere.

Ian Simes