Temporary smoking structures may bring about an unfair and automatic rise in rateable value (RV).
Fleurets head of ratings Michael Yass believes that smoking shelters will maintain trade rather than increase it, but he predicts that the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and local councils will raise rates when businesses install smoking areas to comply with the English smoking ban that comes into force on 1 July.
He argues that pub hosts will use smoking shelters to accommodate their customers and will effectively not be increasing their capacity or trade potential.
Yass said: "My view is that the RV of traditional licensed properties is based on fair, maintainable trade.
"The addition of these structures is a requirement if licensees are to maintain their trade after this
date - I do not equate these additions to an increase in trade."
Yass claims that licensees who cannot provide a smoking area could appeal to lower their RV because any local competition that can offer
its customers smoking facilities will have a significant trade advantage in the area.
A spokesman for the VOA said: "The assessment of the vast majority of public houses is based on their trade - therefore the provision of a smoking shelter will not, on its own, impact on the rating assessment."
David Morgan of Cookseys DMP said: "Rates are assessed on the whole trade - if
you erect a smoking
shelter and your trade stays the same, your rates will not increase.
"There's a lot of scare-mongering going on. Everyone should be trying to maintain their trade levels."
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