I’ve received another press release from Colliers International, a global player in commercial real estate services. It says it has identified the ‘top 10’ retail locations across the UK that have seen the biggest increase in vacancy rates coupled with a significant decrease in rental value. These locations are the most likely to benefit from lodging an appeal against their businesses rates, backdated to 2010 before the March 31 deadline.

Here’s their list of the top 10 towns ranked by highest increase in vacancy rates between 2010-2014: Telford, Boston, Swansea, Merry Hill, Neath, Poole, Aylesbury, Barnstaple, Marlow and Swindon.

John Webber, head of rating at Colliers, says: “The VOA should be happy acting to reduce the rateable values of retail units in those worst affected towns.”

And don’t forget that in the Chancellor’s Autumn Statement, the government introduced a deadline of March 31 for appeals on business rates valuations.

So that means that you’ve got just over a couple of weeks left to appeal or you could risk losing out on five years-worth of overpayments. And no one can afford to lose out on that.

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