Shops offered £1 rents on hard-up streets
By Claer Barrett, Retail correspondent
Pound shops, selling cheap household goods and plastic toys, have become a familiar sight on high streets as the downturn has bitten. But the term has taken on another meaning with reports of knock-down rents of just £1-a-year on hard-to-let shops.
With the number of boarded-up shops proliferating on high streets, retail landlords have become desperate to avoid paying business rates on empty units and are happy to sacrifice the rent.
Dixons, owner of electrical retail chains Currys and PC World, has told the Financial Times it is paying a nominal rent of £1 a year on “a small handful” of its 121 UK high-street premises. The majority are on streets with high vacancy rates and were earmarked for closure when leases expired. However, landlords have agreed to waive rents as long as Dixons keeps paying the business rates, which would revert to the landlord were the retailer to quit.
Card Factory, a lower-cost rival to Clinton Cards, confirmed it also had “business rates only” deals on a few of its 600 UK stores, and other landlords are tempting charity shops to fill voids and reduce their rates liability.
Typically charged at 40 per cent of a shop’s estimated annual rental value, the business rates system has been heavily criticised by retailers and their landlords. Because it operates on a five-year cycle, the system is slow to recognise falls in rents, yet annual increases are pegged to inflation. This means rates bills will go up by 5.6 per cent next April at a time when high-street rents in many areas are falling, making it uneconomic to trade from certain locations.
“What we are focused on is making our property portfolio as flexible as possible, so we’re able to cope with changing high-street dynamics,” said Andy Garbutt, corporate development director at Card Factory, which is backed by private equity house Charterhouse Capital. “In some high streets, the business rates are now higher than the rents, which is a deterrent to opening up new shops.”
Card Factory is still expanding, but other retailers including Dixons, Mothercare, Thorntons and Sir Philip Green’s Arcadia Group are all quitting high street stores when leases expire, preferring to trade from shopping centres, retail parks or online. Coupled with falling consumer spending, average high-street vacancy rates now stand at 14.3 per cent, according to the Local Data Company, up from 4 per cent in 2008.
According to its research, high streets with the worst vacancy rates include Margate and Wandsworth in the south of England, and Rotherham and Blackpool in the north.
“In areas with high-vacancy rates, landlords are desperate to avoid ending up with an empty shop and a huge business rates bill,” said Mark Rigby, chief executive of CVS, the business rates specialist. “It’s not uncommon for landlords to target charity shops to mitigate business rates charges on empty shops, as charities typically get an 80 per cent discount.”
In recent weeks, the government retail adviser Mary Portas has hit out at the number of charity shops on UK high streets, claiming that their entitlement to rate relief should be capped, and extended to other small retail business.
“These short-term fixes further underline the dire situation facing the retail sector,” said Liz Peace, chief executive of the British Property Federation. “Changing shopping habits and a faltering economy have pushed some areas past the point of no return, and where businesses cannot afford both rents and business rates then clearly rents will have to give.
“In the longer term, if communities want busy high streets then they must look at practical and creative ways of driving footfall. In many cases this will mean alternative uses to retail, and the unpalatable fact that in some areas, the value of landlords’ investments will never fully recover.”

Iniciado por ulisses

Entonces el UK se está latinizando, Mr. Pat. One pound in white and...1000 pounds in black.

Wellcome to the alternative tax system.

Iniciado por ulisses

No conozco la legislación británica en cuanto al alquiler de locales de negocio. Pero le aseguro que en España no sería posible hacer lo mismo que en UK y tengo la sensación de que la normativa fiscal británica es la misma que la europea.

Por lo tanto, el alquiler de locales destinados a negocio está sujeto al VAT y la transacción tendría que ser valorada "a precios de mercado". Por ese motivo, me temo que el ayuntamiento británico podría efectuar una liquidación "paralela" alegando la normativa del IVA.

El impuesto de los ayuntamientos en España se calcula en función de índices o módulos y, muchas veces, es de tasa fija dependiendo del tipo de actividad y las empresas que no facturan más de 6.000.000 de euros al año no tienen que pagarlo.

Iniciado por >> 47 <<

Si en los núcleos de toda gran ciudad se cosiera a impuestos todos los locales que ni generan empleo, ni se habitan, ni se venden, ni se alquilan, ...habría muchas más ganas de vender alquilar asequible o de contratar a alguien para simular actividad.

Esta es una de las claves para generar empleo, y que todo autónomo pueda aspirar a un local comercial o un taller asequible en el que poder desarrollar su actividad y dar empleo a otros ciudadanos. De perogrullo.

Iniciado por Pat

Esto será el peor, en el UK está problema puntual ha legado debido al retraso por parte de los ayuntamientos a actualizar los impuestos locales. Actualmente se está pagando como si los locales eren en el máximo del boom, hay 5 años de retraso. De ahí que hay tantos locales cerrados en el centro de los pueblos. Mientras tanto se ha construido enormes centrales comerciales en las afueras. Resultado, se muere el centro de los pueblos.

Iniciado por Petardazo Inminente

He estado de vacaciones por EEUU ( interior y costa oeste ) y el panorama es exactamente el mismo. Había estado hace tres años y ya se notaba la tendencia, pero esta vez al pasar por algún sitio que ya había estado la diferencia era impactante. En Arizona había sitios que parecían un plató de The Walking Dead

Iniciado por Pat

Es lo que pasa cuando la avaricia de los políticos exceda lo asumible.
Lo desesperante es que no hay forma que unos aprenden de los errores de otros…..