Burdening the nation’s capital
This list of the top 50 business rate bills published by the Guardian shows strikingly how heavily the UBR bears on capital rather than land. Power stations, steelworks, oil refineries and ports are amongst the hardest hit. Heathrow, at the top of the list, is paying for its location value, as are the other big city airports, but a surprising number operate on sites for which the LVT valuation would be that of low-grade agricultural land – such as chemical and steelworks in the north-east. Under an LVT system list would come in a very different order and the capital-intensive operations such as chemical plants and power stations would get off lightly.
Heathrow airport, Hounslow: £118,320,000
Sellafield Limited, Cumbria: £32,335,870
Sizewell B power station, Suffolk: £28,283,410
Gatwick airport, West Sussex: £27,849,570
Heysham 2 power station, Lancashire: £24,640,140
No 1 Maintenance Area, Heathrow: £20,301,740
Vodafone fibre optic network and Berkshire premises: £19,720,000
Hartlepool power station: £16,564,800
Corus UK Ltd, Lincolnshire: £15,460,480
Manchester airport: £15,302,720
Stansted airport, Essex: £15,046,360
BA World Cargo Centre Buildings, Heathrow: £13,641,310
Home Office, London: £12,305,280 Harrods, London: £11,827,070
Citigroup, Canada Square, London: £11,822,140
HSBC 8, Canada Square, London: £11,728,470
British Airways, Terminal 5, Heathrow: £11,457,320
Drax power station, North Yorkshire: £11,215,750
BBC Broadcasting House, Portland Place, London: £11,038,270
JP Morgan, Bank Street, London: £10,826,280
Esso refinery, Southampton: £10,826,280
SSI South Teeside works, Cleveland: £10,725,215
Selfridges, Oxford Street, London: £10,042,410
Barclays Bank, Canary Wharf, London: £9,455,740
Ministry Of Defence, Whitehall, London: £9,317,700
Heysham 1 power station, Lancashire: £9,120,500
Credit Suisse, Cabot Square, London: £9,095,850
National Grid, Kent: £8,676,800
Security Service, Millbank, London: £8,553,550
Felixstowe Dock & Railway Co, Suffolk: £8,381,000
BBC, Wood Lane, London: £8,001,390
Ratcliffe-On-Soar power station, Nottingham: £7,685,870
Channel Tunnel, Kent: £7,592,200
Goldman Sachs, Fleet Street, London: £7,488,670
Clifford Chance, Upper Bank Street, London: £7,434,440
Birmingham airport: £7,399,930
Devonport Royal Dockyard, Plymouth: £7,261,890
PWC, Embankment Place, London: £7,084,410
Gas Storage Facility, Hull: £6,837,910
University Of Manchester: £6,783,680
Palace Of Westminster, London: £6,655,500
Didcot B power station: £6,615,074
Phillips 66 Ltd, Lincolnshire: £6,581,550
Staythorpe power station, Nottinghamshire: £6,544,575
New Scotland Yard 10, London: £6,502,670
Cottam power station, Nottinghamshire: £6,409,000
West Burton power station, Nottinghamshire: £6,399,140
John Lewis, Oxford Street, London: £6,384,350
Morgan Stanley, Bank Street, London: £6,344,910
HM Treasury, London: £6,344,910