If you run a pub or maybe a business which has been effected badly by the smoking ban, you may get a business rates review granted according to the latest from the Valuation Agency.

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Publicans who applied for a reduction in the rateable value of their premises after the ban was introduced in 2007 were turned down on the grounds there had been no material change in the way the pub was used.

But the Valuation Office Agency has received legal advice saying that decision was wrong.

New guidance states valuers should take the loss of the right for customers to smoke into account when assessing the rateable value of a pub, which could save landlords thousands of pounds a year.

This could be the saving grace for a number of the county’s pubs – many of whom have closed in the past few months.

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