Business rates advisory I Real Estate Advisory

Our business rates advisory team combines national coverage with local expertise, working with clients across the public and private sector to reduce their cost of occupation and provide real estate advisory services across complex national property portfolios.

Our commitment to excellence is reflected in our team. We go the extra mile to deliver the required results and to maximise savings on business rates for our clients.

Richard Williamson Director, Business Rates and Valuation, WSP

Richard Williamson Director, Business Rates and Valuation, WSP

What are business rates and how can you reduce your liability?

As a significant business overhead, business rates is a complex and costly commercial property tax. With proactive management you costs can be reduced and profitability increased.

Whether you want to maximise savings from empty property, challenge your current business rates liabilities, or uncover missed opportunities for relief, WSP is here to help you significantly reduce the burden of business rates.

We provide a full-service business rates advisory solution established over 100 years, building on the legacy of our GL Hearn heritage. We lead the way in reducing ratepayer liabilities, processing over £3bn worth of business rates liabilities every year.

Our team, comprising over 175 business rates experts, operate nationally across the UK and Republic of Ireland, providing comprehensive UK coverage matched with local expertise. Our scale positions us to effectively manage business rates for even the most complex property portfolios.

We are committed to finding every avenue to minimise your business rate liabilities. This includes supporting our clients to act with confidence when approaching a revaluation or mobilising mid-List.

Sector focused approach, with sector specialist valuers across the UK and Republic of Ireland

While our proven track-record in retail and food store sectors across high street and out-of-town is renowned, we also having leading expertise in-house in the leisure and hospitality, healthcare, specialist distribution, and commercial office sectors. We also have a dedicated in-house landlord team.

Value of business rates liabilities advised on across multiple property types

£3bn

Percentage of business rates liabilities advised on in the UK

10%

WSP Real Estate Services Limited is Regulated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

RICS

Our business rates advisory services

We offer a comprehensive business rates service to manage the cost of occupation in England, Scotland, Wales, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland. In addition to these core business rates services, we provide a service charge and insurance challenge service, building consultancy services and valuation.

Estimates and budgets: Our advice enables businesses to develop strategies to invest and manage risk. We proactively provide budgets and estimate rating liabilities.
Check, Challenge and Appeal (CCA): We provide extensive advice on checking, challenging and appealing the rateable value of large scale property portfolios across mixed-use asset classes.
Challenge strategies: We advise on opportunities across property portfolios devising proactive strategies and managing all Challenge activities on behalf of our clients.
Rate Payment Management (RPM): We provide a fully RICS and Institute of Revenues, Rating and Valuation (IRRV) compliant rate payment management and client monies service in-house including a full Treasury solution.
Historic Rates Audit (HRA): We offer an in-house historic rates audit service.
Material Change of Circumstance (MCC): Our in-house team will seek reductions to your rateable value for the period of any disturbance caused by neighbouring developments such as road works or new store openings.
Empty rates mitigation: Our in-house team will explore opportunities to save money where you have empty properties across your portfolio.
Service charge and insurance: We undertake service charge audits to ensure compliance with lease terms. We also advise on budgeting and drafting of lease terms to maximise cost controls over the life of the lease.

Our business rates advisory team

Our team is made up of business rates specialists in surveying and valuation, many of whom have experience working with billing authorities and the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), Scottish Assessors, Tailte Eireann, and Land & Property Services. This gives us unrivalled experience and knowledge of the business rates system enabling us to deliver insightful solutions, even to the most complex problems.

Our Director of Business Rates & Valuation, Richard Williamson, is former President of the Rating Surveyors’ Association (RSA) and we also have wider representation on the RSA Committee as well as on the E-Comms Forum, VOA Agent Forum, Valuation Tribunal User Group and Public Bodies Liaison Group. We have representation on equivalent bodies in Wales and Scotland.

Our position as market leaders in the business rates community gives us insight into changes occurring within the rating system across the UK and direct influence in relation to shaping policy.

A firm regulated by the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS)

WSP Real Estate Services Limited (formerly GL Hearn Limited) is a firm regulated by RICS for the provision of surveying services. This means WSP Real Estate Services Limited agree to uphold the RICS Rules of Conduct and all other applicable mandatory professional practice requirements of RICS, which can be found at WSP Real Estate Services Limited - RICS Find a Surveyor.

As a RICS regulated firm, WSP Real Estate Services Limited have committed to cooperating with RICS in ensuring compliance with its standards. WSP Real Estate Service’s nominated RICS Responsible Principal is Richard Williamson. You can contact Richard via email at [email protected].

GLHIMS: Our bespoke business rates information management system

Our unique business rates information management system, GLHIMS, forms a strong foundation for our service. A powerful reporting database and reporting tool, GLHIMS provides secure, live access to view all records relevant to their portfolio and access key documents remotely. It also directly interfaces with the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) systems enabling us to provide accurate, seamless reporting of cases. This is a critical building block for the information provision requirements in England & Wales that will come into effect during the 2026 Rating Revaluation.