Crossrail Business Rate Supplement (BRS) from April 2010

The Mayor of London has sent to all commercial occupiers within Greater London a booklet with the proposals for an introduction an annual business rate supplement (BRS) from April 2010. This is to finance the Greater London Authority’s (GLA) contribution towards the costs of the Crossrail project. If you are in London and haven’t received it further information can be found at www.london.gov.uk/crossrail-brs The GLA is having to finance around £4.1 billion of the projected £15.9 billion Crossrail project costs and this will be collected by the 33 London billing authorities.

Currently, it is intended that 2p will be levied on all commercial properties with a Rateable value in excess of £50,000. However, this is subject to review and is dependant upon the impact the new rateable values will have on businesses when it is introduced next year. The good news is that it supposedly will apply to only 20% of business premises in London. The bad news is that it is expected to run for at least 25 years until the GLA borrowing is repaid! We’ll keep all our London clients posted on further developments.