WORCESTER'S MP Robin Walker has welcomed the news the Treasury is to overhaul the business rates system.

Chief Secretary to the Treasury, Danny Alexander has launched the most wide-ranging review of national business rates in a generation, paving the way for changes to how businesses across England pay the tax.

Mr Walker said: "Business rates are one of the few areas where we do not currently incentivise businesses to expand to create new jobs. Instead the big increases in the business rates bills if a business takes on new premises acts as a disincentive to employment. I would like to see a number of reforms to business rates to reward both high street shops and industrial businesses that create jobs and invest in skills and I have long argued that the system we currently use is both out of date and unwieldy.

"I was delighted when the business innovation and skills select committee agreed to my suggestion of fundamental reform to the business rates system in its report on the high street and I am even more pleased that my call has now been heeded by the Government.”

“If we are to continue Britain’s remarkable economic recovery and the investment in jobs and skills that we all want to see, we need a business rates system that is fit for the twenty first century. I hope that this review can deliver just that and whether it is manufacturers wanting to invest in plant and machinery or shops wanting to keep a strong presence on the high street, these reforms will need to deliver.”