Catalyst Rating is a specialist consultancy that provides tailored advice to help you navigate the complex world of business rates. Our ultimate goal is to maximise rates savings and ensure your future bills remain as low as possible. Our focus is office and industrial properties in London and the South East, although we have the capability and experience to advise on all property types across England.
Elliot Jones
– Founder
Elliot graduated from Oxford Brookes University in 2012 with a degree in Real Estate Management and went on to qualify as a Chartered Surveyor in 2014. After starting his career at Altus Group, he then spent 5 years at CBRE as a Director in the London Rating team.
He also advises occupiers and landlords on refurbishment projects. He is privileged to have advised on some of the largest development projects in the country and recently deleted the valuation of a 1.2 million square foot office building in Canary Wharf.
He is a member of the Royal Institution of Chartered Surveyors (RICS) and the Rating Surveyors’ Association(RSA).
Elliot has experience advising clients on properties of all sizes, from small single assessments to national portfolios with multi-million pound annual rates liabilities. In recent years he has led business rates agreements for offices across London and the South East including in Canary Wharf, Paddington and St James.
Elliot predominantly advises office occupiers but has an eclectic range of experience and history of success for self-storage operators, industrial occupiers including distribution warehouses, car parks, retail, leisure centres and residential to commercial developments etc.
We can help mitigate your ongoing liability and maximise historic savings!
Services
If you pay business rates, Catalyst Rating can help mitigate your ongoing liability and maximise historic savings. We undertake a thorough review of the Rateable Value (RV) applied to your property and help navigate the Check, Challenge, Appeal (CCA) process.
Occupier Services
By working closely with the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) and local Councils, we explore all potential avenues for business rates savings including:
- Factual inaccuracies such as excessive measured areas
- Tone of the list – where rental evidence or comparable properties support a reduction in the rate per square metre
- Material Change in Circumstances – such as temporary discounts to reflect nearby disruptive building or road works
- Splits and mergers – for example merging contiguous office floors can often reduce the overall RV
- New occupiers – we ensure the Rateable Value is correct and as low as possible from the outset, including checking rates are not paid prematurely
- Empty property relief – full and partial vacant property relief or exemptions for listed buildings
- Valuation Tribunal – in the rare scenario that your case is not agreed at the Challenge stage, we have a successful track record of taking cases to Valuation Tribunal
Advice & Management
As part of our ongoing service, we also assist with:
- Budgeting – annual rates liability advice and bill checking including forecasting for the 2026 Rating List
- Completion of request for rental information forms and compliance with Duty to Notify from 2026
- Legislative updates that may impact your business rates liability or the appeal process
Owner Services
If you are a landlord or developer with an empty commercial property, we can help mitigate ongoing rates costs. We formulate a custom and proactive strategy which includes:
- Deletion Appeals – for property under refurbishment, being stripped out or complete demolitions
- Rates mitigation – temporary occupation to secure successive periods of empty rates relief
- Completion Notice Advice – ensuring business rates on new properties are not paid prematurely
- Occupation prohibited by law – exempting properties from business rates that pose a health or safety risk
