A total of 914 pubs disappeared in 2018, according to the real estate data company Altus Group’s annual review, due to be released this week.

About 76 pubs vanished each month during the year, although this represents a slowdown in decline from 2017. The total number of pubs in England and Wales, liable for business rates, was 41,536 on 1 January 2019, representing a fall of 1,530 since a controversial revaluation came into force in April 2017.

The chief executive of UK Hospitality, Kate Nicholls, said: “Pubs are being hit with a myriad of cost pressures at a time of unprecedented political uncertainty and unstable consumer confidence. Unless positive action is taken by the government to address crippling costs, more pubs will be forced out of business.”

This month, the Campaign for Real Ale (Camra) said business rate increases were forcing publicans to lay off staff, increase prices and hold off investment.

A survey of 650 licensees by the pub campaign group found that three out of four believed the system was unfair to pubs. The chief executive of Camra, Tom Stainer said: “Since the last business rates revaluation in 2017, it has been clear that the system simply isn’t working for publicans.”

Bailiffs have been sent in to more than 81,000 companies that have struggled to pay business rates in the first year since a controversial overhaul of the system, according to new figures.

An investigation by ratings adviser Altus Group found that bailiffs were sent to 222 premises across England every day in 2017-18, with the power to enter properties, seize goods and subsequently sell them at auction in order to balance a business’s debts.

A freedom of information request by Altus came back with details on how many business premises were referred to bailiffs from 264 English councils covering 1.6 million properties of the 1.9 million liable for rates.

Using the data provided, it found that 6.53 per cent of firms liable for rates – nearly one in every 15 commercial properties with a bill – faced having their goods seized, up from 6 per cent the year before.

The rates revaluation in April 2017 left millions of businesses facing crippling tax hikes and forced many retailers and pubs out of business, as it saw properties revalued for the first time in seven years.

With councils strapped for cash due to austerity measures, and business rates making up an increasing chunk of income – along with the effect the rise in rates had on the running costs of businesses – the increase in instructions to bailiffs is of little surprise to experts.

Robert Hayton, head of UK business rates at Altus, said: “Councils are taking enforcement action much earlier since their finances became more aligned to business rates income.”

CIPFA and the Local Government Association have expressed concern that the move to value properties every three years rather than five could result in more business rate appeals.

They spoke to PF after a letter emerged in April suggesting the government had u-turned on a promise to compensate councils for loss of income due to the reversal of the so-called ‘staircase tax’.

This is where businesses occupying more than one floor with stairs between were taxed for the separate levels as if they were different buildings.

Reversing this will mean councils are collecting less in business rates.

Chancellor Philip Hammond promised to reduce the valuations cycle in last year’s autumn Budget and in March brought the next valuation ahead a year to 2021.

Jo Pitt, CIPFA’s local government policy advisor, said appeals can cost councils “considerable amounts” and “takes money out of the system for public services”.

The government will offer extra help for small firms affected by an imminent change to business rates, the communities secretary has announced, saying that more should be done “to level the playing field”.

Following increasing concern from some businesses and Conservative MPs about the impact of the first business rate revaluation in seven years, Sajid Javid said the chancellor, Philip Hammond, would announce new measures in the budget on 8 March. This would form part of a wider and longer-term re-examination of the business rates system, he added.

The announcement follows a pledge from Theresa May at prime minister’s questions that small businesses left with the highest rate increases would be helped. Javid’s department said it would be revealed at the budget whether the current £3.6bn fund for transitional relief would be increased.

Speaking during a wider Commons debate on local government finance, Javid said the rates revaluation would see three-quarters of all businesses pay the same amount or less than before. “I am also acutely aware of the impact on the quarter that will see increases,” he continued. “If your rates are going up, it’s no consolation to hear that others’ will be going down. I’ve long recognised the need to provide support.”

The transitional relief fund would help more than 140,000 smaller businesses, Javid said, adding: “But as colleagues and the media have highlighted in recent days, there are clearly some individual businesses facing particular difficulties.”

The government is under growing pressure to stop a sharp increase in business rates for hospitals that threatens to increase the strain on the NHS.

Changes to the business rates system mean that the 1,249 NHS hospitals liable for the property tax will see their bills increasing by £322m, or 21%, over the next five years from April.

However, a growing number of politicians are calling for the government to reconsider the tax hike for hospitals, including making them eligible for the same 80% discount that charities enjoy.

Some private healthcare providers, such as Nuffield Health, already enjoy an 80% discount because they are registered as charities. Furthermore, the business rates that the 581 private hospitals do pay will not increase as much as it will for hospitals.

The rateable value of private hospitals has increased by 9.6% in the last revaluation while NHS hospitals have seen a 19.8% rise, according to research by the property consultant CVS.

The cross-party group of politicians who have already expressed concern about the tax rise for hospitals include Steve McCabe, Labour MP for Birmingham Selly Oak, Royston Smith, Conservative MP for Southampton Itchen, and Annie Wells, Conservative and Unionist MSP for Glasgow.