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There is a danger that any significant changes in the rating system will involve only dwellings and that non‐domestic rating will continue as before. There are, however, strong arguments for either the reform, or abolition of, rates on business premises. They are not related to ability to pay or the cost of services used; the payers are not local voters and infrequent revaluations alter unfairly the relative burdens of different businesses. Non‐domestic rates provided an estimated 24 per cent of local government rate fund revenue in Great Britain in 1981/82 compared with 19 per cent contributed by domestic rate payers and 57 per cent from Exchequer grants.

This paper attempts to state the arguments in favour of a unitised market for commercial property investment. Unitisation involves the splitting up of the ownership of a single property into units which can then be freely traded in much the same way as stocks and shares on the stock market. At present there are two main sets of proposals relating to the introduction of a unitised property market. These will be briefly summarised and then a number of questions will be posed concerning valuation and property management aspects of unitisation.