Businesses in England promised millions of pounds under the government’s business rates discount scheme are yet to receive their discounts. 

Ratepayers with a value below £51,000 are set to receive a one-third discount from their bill. 

However, with less than two weeks before the start of the new tax year in April, many
are still waiting for their discounts, or haven’t even applied. 

Robert Hayton, head of UK business rates at real estate advisor Altus Group, said: “Councils should apply the discount automatically to those premises not part of a chain and unlikely to be impacted by state aid rules, while bills could have been manually adjusted to avoid the uncertainty and cost of rebilling.”

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