Dan Neidle

They can do other things.

They can relocate.

They can close, they can move online, they can bargain more.

So tenants, when they're negotiating rent and their power, such as they have, to demand and set rent, is driven by the total cost of occupying it.

And that means rates and rent.

So that's the theory, but the evidence has shown that, and that's certainly outside London as well as inside London, just to a lesser extent.

Ultimately...

It flows through to landlords.

And this is not some esoteric secret.

This is really well known.

Government knows it.

IFS know it.

The Treasury certainly know it.

And so it's really sad to see politicians who either don't know or are pretending not to know that business rates go through to landlords.

And if you spend millions of pounds on a cut in business rates, that is mostly a handout to landlords.

But it's never that transparent, is it?

Because you've probably got upward only rent reviews in your contract.

The rent would go up anyway.

You're not going to know how much it would have gone up if there hadn't been a change in business rates.

It's all unenforceable.