Planned 3.9% rise in business rates set to be cut

The Budget will cut a planned 3.9 per cent hike in business rates and pave the way for building houses on the green belt, it was claimed today. Philip Hammond delivers his next Budget on November 22 against a backdrop of economic uncertainty over Brexit and needing to find billions to unwind earlier errors. Instead of increasing business rates by the RPI measure of inflation, the Chancellor will tell firms he will use the lower CPI. The move will save businesses hundreds of millions of pounds when the next round of rates kicks in from April. Talks between Mr Hammond and Communities Secretary Sajid Javid convened by Prime Minister Theresa May have also yielded agreement on housing plans, the Sunday Times said.