EMPTY PROPERTY BUSINESS RATES

That this House notes with concern the increasingly detrimental effect of the Government's policy of charging full business rates on empty commercial properties; further notes that some property owners are trying to lease property for as little as 50 pence per square foot because they cannot pay the rates, and other companies are profiting from needlessly demolishing empty properties whose owners cannot afford to pay the tax; and calls on the Government to review this policy in the light of the current economic circumstances and the damage it is doing to the commercial property infrastructure and economic viability of UK business.