“The Government has missed its opportunity to change its mind about postponing the rates revaluation,” comments Philip Clarkson, Rating specialist at Storeys Edward Symmons.

KW Brothers Limited, one of Plymouth’s leading wholesalers of oriental foodstuffs, has acquired the freehold of the former car showroom premises at Durnford Street, Plymouth.  

Head of Rating at the Edward Symmons Group

Paul Easton, Head of Rating at Storeys Edward Symmons, comments.

Edward Symmons is marketing a luxurious Diamond DA42 Platinum aircraft.  

Edward Symmons’ Liverpool team has been instructed by Halewood International to market a 5.5 acre site near the Sovereign Distillery in Huyton, Merseyside. 

Two lettings totalling 33,400 sq ft have been agreed at Thorpe Park, marking a great start to 2013 and bringing the total letting and sales activity at the leading Yorkshire business park to more than 50,000 sq ft over a 12 month period. 

The Bankside office of Edward Symmons has let 8,000 sq ft of offices jointly with Field & Sons on the ground and first floors of Chapter House, Crucifix Lane, London SE1. A rent of £25 per sq. ft. was achieved on a lease of 7 years subject to a tenants option to determine at 3rd & 5th years . The space has been taken by Instant Managed Offices .

The specialist Healthcare team at Edward Symmons has sold Valentine House, a 48 bed registered carehome at Silver End, Witham, Essex. The sale was conducted on the instructions of Joint Administrators at Begbies Traynor. Two other carehomes within the same group, in Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire, have also completed to different purchasers through Edward Symmons. 

Storeys Edward Symmons has been celebrating the first anniversary of its merger with Edward Symmons, and reports that, within its first year, 11 new staff have been recruited to the Newcastle and Teesside offices. The new staff cover all aspects of rating, agency and property management. 

“While the Midlands hotels sector may look dynamic on paper, trading performance has shown the reality to be rather different. If you take the Birmingham market there are currently around 1,200 hotel beds in the market with a 4,000 bedrooms in identifiable schemes in the pipeline. However, current trading figures don’t support this sort of expansion in the short term, so if it were to go ahead, it would put tremendous pressure on the older stock and /or those hotels in more peripheral locations.”

“Many businesses in the hospitality sector are understandably annoyed about the proposed postponement of the business rates revaluation. Business rates are currently based on rental values in April 2008, before many property values fell or crashed with the recession. A revaluation in 2015 would be based on rental values in April 2013 and we know in many cases how they have fallen in those five years. For a revaluation in 2017, the revaluation date will be April 2015 but the bad news is that ratepayers will have another two years on now inflated April 2008 rates with just inflationary increases for 2015-16 and 2016-17!"

“The Government has missed its opportunity to change its mind about postponing the rates revaluation,” comments Philip Clarkson, Rating specialist at Storeys Edward Symmons. “On Monday night, just 40 minutes was given to a debate on two amendments to the proposed delay to the Business Rates Revaluation in a virtually empty House of Lords. This was very disappointing given the significant impact this postponement will have on the economy. Two of the Lords argued with some force that the clear consequence of the delay will be that those areas and sectors of the property market which have done comparatively poorly since 2008, will be denied two years reduction in rates at a time when help is so desperately needed."

The SIF needs to address the City’s traffic issues, comments Robert Diggle, Partner at Edward Symmons in Liverpool.

A residential estate of 21 houses, at Crook in County Durham, has been sold by the Newcastle office of Storeys Edward Symmons.