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| December 2011 |
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I hope this pre-Christmas round up finds you all well. Here in the BCSC office we have been somewhat disappointed to find ourselves extremely busy in what should be the wind down to festive merriness. As I write this, rather than red wine, we are still mulling over the full contents of Mary Portas’ review into the nation’s High Streets. Portas’ high profile launch last week has certainly put the debate into the future of our town and city centres onto the front pages and in as the lead item on broadcast pieces. No doubt some of you will have caught our own Michael Green popping up on Sky and BBC!
I hope that this brief update provides you with a snapshot of our activity over the past month or so. As ever, to keep up to with our policy activity as it happens, please read our blog on Estates Gazette or follow our twitter account @BCSCretailprop or my own @BCSCEdCooke. You can also email me direct on edward.cook@bcsc.org.uk should you have any questions/suggestions. I’d be delighted to hear from you.
I wish you all the best for the Christmas season and of course, a very Happy New Year!
Yours sincerely
Edward Cooke
Executive Director
BCSC
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Autumn Statement |
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The major theme of the Chancellor’s statement was clearly the slowdown in growth, blamed (this time!) on higher than expected inflation squeezing household incomes and consumption, the euro zone debt crisis and its impact on consumer and market confidence as well as export prospects and the ongoing structural impact of the financial crisis. |
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> What
this means for your business and what we are doing |
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Mary Portas |
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Commissioned earlier this year before the summer riots, Mary Portas’ final report was published last week. Broadly speaking there is a lot in the report that we should welcome, although there is also a lot that is not that new and it is fairly light on policy detail. However a number of our key recommendations have been accepted, especially around:
- releasing assets onto the market;
- a presumption in favour of town centre development;
- a more strategic approach to managing town and city centres;
- the impact of business rates on retail profitability and encouraging owners; and
- occupiers to negotiate contract terms rather than recommending Government intervention
For the full review, please see here.
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>
What
this means for your business and what we are doing |
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Local Government Finance Bill |
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Following on from the summer consultation, the Government has this week tabled the Local Government Finance Bill in the House of Commons. They now hope to steer this to Royal Ascent by summer 2012. Accompanying this, they have also published their response to the summer review. This can be found here. |
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> What
this means for your business and what we are doing
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Scotland – plans to cut empty property rate relief |
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The Scottish Government's Spending Review 2011 announced that the Scottish Government will bring forward legislation to reform empty property relief from April 2013. Property owners are hoping that any planned reductions to empty property relief will amount to pruning rather than wholesale cuts. It has, however, been suggested that the 50% relief may be slashed to 10%, which would clearly have a huge financial impact on property owners who would be left paying 90% of rates.
> What
this means for your business and what we are doing
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