Airports identified as biggest winners of government’s £4.3bn support package with Heathrow alone taking £900m discount
Struggling hotels, restaurants and nightclubs are calling for more financial help with business rates after it emerged that Heathrow is among the biggest beneficiaries of a multibillion-pound package of state support.
The UK’s biggest airport is in line for a discount of nearly £900m on its rates bill over the next three years. That is a fifth of the total £4.3bn “transitional relief” fund announced by the chancellor in the budget for all businesses facing big bill increases.
Heathrow’s rates bill will still rise by £50m to £171m this year, according to figures compiled by property firm Avison Young and first reported by The Sunday Times. The airport has one of the highest rateable values in the country.
Had the government not stepped in, Heathrow’s business rates bill would have leapt to £512m in the upcoming fiscal year, £514m the year after, and £523m the year after, taking the total over the next three years to £1.5bn. Reliefs over this period will take the aggregate to £650m, thanks to transitional relief of £898m.
