A leading unoccupied property insurance broker is joining calls for the Government to reconsider the idea of empty rates on commercial properties, what’s become known as the ‘bomb site Britain’ tax.
Titan Insurance, which is one of the UK’s largest players in the unoccupied property insurance sector, admits that the previous administration headed up by Gordon Brown and Alistair Darling had the best intentions in mind when they got rid of not only the 50% relief from business rates for owners of empty retail and office space, but also the 100% relief for warehouse and factory owners.
They believed it would stimulate regeneration in towns and cities as landlords would go full steam ahead to redevelop their promises in order to attract new tenants, and thereby avoid paying rates in empty properties.
This might have worked handsomely in a boom, but it has failed in a recessionary economic climate. What’s more, an attempt to soften the blow – a threshold of £18,000 rental income under which properties were exempt from the empty rates – is now being scrapped.
Chief Executive Officer of Titan Business Insurance, ●, said:
“When the recession struck in 2008, the idea of a buoyant commercial rental market in which there would be a rapid turnaround of tenants, has proved to be wrong. Now landlords are becoming stuck with properties and many of the country’s high streets are indeed looking like forgotten bombsites.
“The Government has to reconsider the idea of empty rates scheme, otherwise it will stagnate future growth.”
As one of the UK’s largest unoccupied property insurance brokers, Titan Insurance arranges policies for both commercial and domestic landlords.
Contact: ● on ● www.titan-insurance.com
