Business rates, retirement, housing and retail sales

There’s more on the government’s upcoming changes to business rates today, with a group of Britain’s biggest employers’ associations condemning the move.

The BBC reports on a letter written by 13 groups, including the British Retail Consortium, the Federation of Small Businesses, Revo, the Association of Convenience Stores, the British Property Federation and the CBI, who want ministers to drop the ‘outrageous’ increases to business rates. They are particularly angry about a clause they believe could prevent firms appealing against rate rises, even if firms can prove they are wrong.

The next business rates revaluation comes into effect on 1 April – the first for seven years. Retirees The Guardian reports on research by the Prudential insurance company which has found one in four people planning to retire this year will still have a mortgage or other debts to pay off and will typically owe about £24,000. The insurer says that the proportion of people who expected to retire in debt this year to be at its highest level for seven years, and that the level had risen to 44 per cent in London.