UK now has the highest property taxes in Europe

The WPI report highlights how the UK now has the highest property taxes in Europe, around 50 per cent more than the next nearest country, and that business rates receipts have increased from £8.8bn in 1990 to £27.3bn in 2017-18, an increase of 210 per cent compared with a 75 per cent increase in inflation.

Other key findings were that shops in the top 50 constituencies most burdened by rates have four times the business rates burden of those in the bottom 50.

If the top 50 constituencies faced the same burden as those in the bottom 50, they would save £54m per year.

Chris Walker, author of the report, said: “This analysis shows how a single policy change – cutting business rates – could deliver massive benefits to communities across the country but especially those in most need of levelling up. Most other taxes are linked to prosperity and are progressive, but in the case of business rates that system has broken down.”