Reader's Letter Of The Day

From today's Evening Standard:

Regarding your article on business rates, there is hope for London's retail and office tenants. There is plenty of evidence to show that increases in rates are offset by equal and opposite reductions in rents, therefore the only losers from this in the long run will be landowners.

They have enjoyed substantial capital gains and increases in rents over the past seven years [i.e. since the last revaluation], so few will shed a tear for them.

Joe Momberg

A pity that either Joe or ES didn't add the 'Young People's Party' sign off.

Or to put it another way, Business Rates is just a super-tax on rents; total London rents have risen by £5 - £10 billion a year over the past seven years, and the government has finally got round to increasing this super-tax to what everybody with a little foresight expected it would be anyway.