Private hospitals set for £52m tax breaks as NHS business rates rise
2 min read
Private hospitals are set to benefit from over £50m of tax breaks over the next five years, while NHS hospitals see their bills soar.
Research from business rate experts CVS estimates that private hospitals registered as charities will get £51.9m in relief.
At the same time, NHS hospitals will see their bills rise 21%, equivalent to £1.83bn.
The chief executive of CVS, Mark Rigby, said the system was unfairly skewed towards private hospitals.
“It is iniquitous that NHS hospitals pay normal business rates but 26.9 per cent of private hospitals, using charitable status, receive an 80 per cent discount,” he said.
Mr Rigby said any government review of rates "must include all reliefs and the current inequalities that exist within the system".
An NHS trust in Birmingham is already launching a challenge over the rate hikes on the Queen Elizabeth hospital, which will have to pay £2m more this year.
University Hospitals Birmingham Trust said: “The trust believes there is an anomaly in how NHS trusts are treated for business rates.
“NHS trusts receive no additional funding to offset business rates costs. We are therefore, alongside other NHS trusts, part of a long-running challenge to seek a similar level of charitable relief on business rates similar to non-profit organisations.”
Shadow health minister Justin Madders said: "The Government’s underfunding of the NHS has pushed hospital finances to the brink with services cut and treatments rationed. Now the Tories’ mishandled business rates plan poses a further threat to patient care.
It can’t be right that NHS hospitals face hundreds of millions of pounds of rates rises while private hospitals get exemptions. The Government need to get a grip of this mess and say what they’re going to do to sort it out. NHS patients shouldn’t be footing the bill for the Government’s botched business rates rise."
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