Are business rates fit for purpose?

"It's not responsive enough to movements in economic conditions"

“A Treasury Select Committee was critical of the system… In some parts of the world they have annual revaluations and that should be an aspiration.”

With the cost of business rates the focus of scrutiny over the last few months, and following the announcement of the postponement of the 2021 revaluation, Andrew West, Business Rates Director at Cooke & Arkwright, provides his views on the business rates system and questions whether it is still fit for purpose as a form of taxation