Agreed.
Removing Business Rates also has the side effect of meaning that business can start thinking about future demand now and invest (to create jobs) by building industrial property.
Business rates on empty property is daft, if people want to invest and not the use the asset, then that is their business. It discourages investment in industrial property.
Now the law has been in place a while, I doubt it is getting much benefit, people have either sold it off, stripped the roof or leased it to avoid the costs. Switching back now would do the world of good, boom time is the place for a tax like this.