The outburst from Eurotunnel comes days ahead of next week’s Autumn Budget, where Chancellor Rachel Reeves will set out the government’s tax and spending plans.<\/p>\n
The potential 200% increase in business rates for Eurotunnel is a result of new calculations by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), which provides the government with valuations and property advice used in setting taxation and benefits.<\/p>\n
A spokesperson for Eurotunnel said such a hike in business rates, along with other taxes, could put its total tax level at about 75% on UK earnings.<\/p>\n
The VOA told the BBC the body “does not determine business rates” and that “next year’s liability has not yet been confirmed”.<\/p>\n
“This unparalleled and unsustainable level of taxation makes any future investment in the UK non-viable,” the Channel Tunnel said. <\/p>\n
“It is therefore impossible to develop new services, create jobs, and pursue what is needed for the long-term development of our activities.”<\/p>\n
The company claimed it had “no other choice but to freeze our future investments in railway assets in the UK, starting in 2026”.<\/p>\n
The BBC has asked Eurotunnel what investments it has frozen. The Financial Times reported that its chief executive, Yann Leriche, told the newspaper it had scrapped plans to reopen a freight terminal in Barking and to run a new direct freight service from Lille. <\/p>\n
The Channel Tunnel is an undersea tunnel linking southern England and northern France. Nicknamed “Chunnel”, it comprises three tunnels, two rail tunnels used for freight and passenger trains, and a service tunnel.<\/p>\n
The link between Folkestone and Calais is operated by Eurotunnel. <\/p>\n
Separate company Eurostar, Eurotunnel’s biggest customer, operates passenger services through the tunnel between London and a number of other European cities on the continent, including Paris, Brussels and Amsterdam.<\/p>\n
A VOA spokesperson told the BBC it had engaged with Eurotunnel and their advisers “on multiple occasions over the past eighteen months to discuss their valuation and fully explain our approach”. <\/p>\n
“These discussions remain ongoing, and we are committed to continuing constructive engagement.”<\/p>\n
The spokesperson added Eurotunnel could formally challenge the valuation.<\/p>\n
Ahead of the Budget, the Eurotunnel called on the government to “provide certainty on business rates”.<\/p>\n
The firm has not been alone in issuing warnings to the chancellor, with supermarket bosses claiming part of the government’s business rates reforms posed a problem for its industry.<\/p>\n
Business rates are a tax on non-domestic properties such as shops, pubs and offices.<\/p>\n
It is expected that Reeves will confirm the rates businesses will have to pay at in the Budget, along with further details, which will come into force in April 2026.<\/p>\n
The Treasury said in response to Eurotunnel’s comments that it did not comment on “speculation around future changes to tax policy”.<\/p>\n
It said once it understood the “complete” revaluation picture, it would be in a position to “make final decisions” on support. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The outburst from Eurotunnel comes days ahead of next week’s Autumn Budget, where Chancellor Rachel Reeves will set…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":274035,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[84,1294,56,54,55],"class_list":{"0":"post-274034","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-economy","8":"tag-business","9":"tag-economy","10":"tag-uk","11":"tag-united-kingdom","12":"tag-unitedkingdom"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274034","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=274034"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/274034\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/274035"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=274034"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=274034"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=274034"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}