The Government has agreed to scrap a planned revaluation of business rates after retailers warned the current rules risk piling more pressure on to high streets next year.
Ministers said they would postpone the five yearly revaluation, which determines how much each business pays, because of the coronavirus lockdown shutting businesses.
With high streets closed across the country, retailers were concerned that the revaluation by HM Revenue and Customs officials from April 2019 is now wildly out of date - though one professional has said the move may delay an already inevitable reduction.
Communities Secretary Robert Jenrick MP said: "We have listened to businesses and their concerns about the timing of the 2021 business rates revaluation and have acted to end that uncertainty by postponing the change.
"Now is the time for us to continue to focus on supporting businesses affected by the pandemic, including through our unprecedented package of almost £10 billion in business rates relief."
Chancellor Rishi Sunak won praise for his budget in which he announced a £22 billion support package through grants and a business rates holiday.
He also committed to a review of the system, following pressure for several years from retailers, restaurants and pubs to overhaul the commercial property tax.
The tax is calculated based partly on the rental values on each property, but with a predicted 20,000 sites expected to close for good after the lockdown, retailers worry the new rates bills for those left will be artificially high.
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Alex Probyn, 海角视频 president of expert services at rates specialists Altus Group, said: "This is great news. A revaluation next year, based upon open market rents in April 2019, a year before the pandemic, would have been so painful for 海角视频 businesses in the wake of such hardship if the new tax demands were assessed from pre-Covid levels.
"It is far more beneficial economically to tie new rateable values under the next revaluation cycle to post Covid-19 levels, where the impact of the economic circumstances are more clear, and when businesses will have had longer to recover."
Andrew Goodacre, chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association (Bira), said: "If it had gone ahead as initially planned, it could have been disastrous for the independent retailer at this point."
However, there is a belief that rate payers in smaller towns and cities may have lost out on a potential reduction.
Lawrence Brown is managing partner at Scotts, a chartered surveyor operating across the Humber. He has played a leading role in the retail market of Grimsby - the 海角视频 pilot of a town deal.
“In 2021 countless occupiers up and down the country would have expected a reduction in their business rates bill,” he said. “ A big reason why our town centre shops are empty is because the business rates bill is often higher than the rent.
“Landlords have taken the decision to charge less rent in an effort to get the premises occupied but the Government will still charge business rates at an exorbitant level so the shops will stay empty.
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“It’s a cynical statement by them to say that they’re not going to review it to “help reduce uncertainty” They’re actually not going to review it because they know that the amount of money generated by this unfair tax would go down.
“Once again penalising the property industry and don’t expect our town centre shops to fill up anytime soon.”