Missed rates savings cost retailers dear

MUSIC chain HMV were denied more than £3million of tax savings that could have helped prevent their collapse.

The retailers should have been big winners from a Government shake-up of business rates in 2017, slashing the bill on 87 of their stores in England.

But a system that caps decreases for firms in some areas, to limit increases for companies in others, meant it lost out instead.

Industry experts Altus Group say this cost HMV £3.35million in missed savings.

HMV cited their £15million-a-year business rates bill among a “tsunami of challenges” after plunging into administration just after Christmas.

Another factor was the impact of online streaming rivals. However, the Record can reveal one of these, industry giants Spotify will pay just £271,150 this year in business rates on their main London offices.

Spotify refused to comment but said they also had “customer service support offices” in Cambridge. HMV’s turnover was £277million in 2017, while they lost up 50.7 at 6861.6 Ferguson GlaxoSmithKline Halfords Hays HSBC Imperial Brands International Airlines Grp ITV Kingfisher Land Securities Legal & General Lloyds Marks & Spencer Morrison National Grid Next Pearson Prudential Reckitt Benckiser RELX 5226.0 +176.0 1519.2 +4.8 274.4 +0.4 147.2 +3.7 649.1 +7.0 2347.0 +17.0 597.0 +0.4 131.4 +5.3 224.8 +4.4 829.8 +14.8 239.0 +3.8 53.7 +0.4 275.2 +14.5 212.6 -7.0 784.1 +5.2 4815.0+240.0 1005.0 +28.8 1425.5 +31.0 6030.0+105.0 1648.0 +17.0 Oil another £8.8million. In the same year, profits at Spotify Ltd, their UK arm, jumped 58 per cent to almost £4.4million on revenues – mostly advertising – of £107million.

Since late 2016, subscriptions from Spotify’s UK customers have gone to their Swedish parent company.

Spotify’s combined revenue from subscriptions and advertising in 2016 was £237million.

Robert Hayton, of Altus Group, called it “absurd” that firms such as HMV weren’t benefitting from the full cut in business rates.

HMV’s administrators KPMG have had “credible interest” from a number of possible buyers. = $58.73 Rentokil Initial Rio Tinto Rolls-Royce Royal Mail RSA RBS J Sainsbury SSE Severn Trent Serco Sports Direct Shell Smith & Nephew Smiths WH Stagecoach Standard Chartered Standard Life Aberdeen TalkTalk Taylor Wimpey Tesco 344.5 3861.5 850.0 286.6 519.4 225.8 266.5 1086.5 1841.0 108.6 271.8 2387.5 1409.5 1841.0 145.8 613.0 263.0 114.7 140.4 208.1 +6.2 +30.5 +40.4 -1.1 +7.6 +1.8 +0.8 +31.5 -9.5 +6.5 +9.5 -1.5 -10.5 +23.0 +3.9 +18.4 +4.3 +0.9 +0.7 +5.6 Thomas Cook Unilever United Utilities Vodafone Reach PLC 37.1 4099.5 756.0 155.6 62.3 -0.2 -5.5 +3.2 -1.8 -0.7