Rents and Rates

The biggest unavoidable expense in running an independent shop is the rent, quickly followed by the rates. With a recession just around the corner, if not actually here, what is happening to rents? Rents have been going up over the last few years but the trend seems to have halted. In fact the headline figures suggest a 15% decline over the last 12 months. One factor which should be promoting a very welcome downward pressure on shop rents is the recent withdrawl of discounts on rates for unoccupied shops. This ought to put pressure on landlords to do deals and keep supply up. But according to the Telegraph it is in fact leading some landlords to simply demolish their property to avoid the rate bill. The paper reports that as a result of this the government are considering a u-turn on the policy. In the harsher retail climate ahead it would be much better if measures to help smaller enterprises could be maintained.