DELAYS in processing business rate appeals are costing Liverpool businesses more than £4.5m a year, according to research from business rates specialist CVS.

It claims there is a backlog of in excess of 328,000 business rate appeals at the Valuation Office Agency (VOA). It says a third of these date back to 2005 and 18,500 are appeals from North West businesses, of which 2,176 relate to Liverpool businesses.

CVS says tens of thousands of business ratepayers have paid too much and are unable to retrieve money owed to them due to the inefficient appeals process.

It claims at the VOA’s current rate of performance it will take a further 2.4 years to clear the backlog of 2010 appeals.

Don Baker, CVS national head of rating, said: “The VOA’s speed of processing business rate appeals is unacceptably slow.

“At the moment, businesses need all the revenue they can get and the VOA’s inefficiency is penalising companies unfairly and preventing those companies from recovering money that is rightfully theirs.

“This is weakening the financial health of a large number of small firms across the country and damaging businesses’ ability to invest and grow.”