Client: Spirit Group
The merger of Scottish & Newcastle with Spirit Group in 2003 created a portfolio of over 2,000 pubs, which was managed by the in-house estates team.
Despite the in-house team’s proactive approach to appeal its rates bills, other business pressures meant that the team was inadequately resourced to comprehensively deal with the appeals and payment management process. It meant that the Group was overpaying its property taxes, so in 2004 it appointed us as its rating appeals and rates payment management advisers for the 2005 Revaluation.
Solution
Before managing the rating process going forward, we wanted to be sure the client’s historic rating position was in good order. This involved a two-stage approach:
- Our first recommendation was to audit the entire estate for secondary appeal opportunities from the 2000 List. The reductions in rateable values identified from this exercise yielded savings of over £2m from the List for the 2004/05 rate year alone.
- Secondly, we scrutinised current and historic rates bills for overpayments, charging inaccuracies and uncollected refunds. A further £1.2m of refunds was unearthed through this auditing process.
For the 2005 List, we continue to proactively manage the entire rates process for the Spirit Group, creating millions of pounds in savings in the process.
The results
Our appointment has saved millions of pounds and entirely removed the administrative and management burden of the payment of rates for Spirit Group.
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