Business rates: Smaller businesses opposed to proposals allowing councils to increase rates
Brian Morris, the FPB's Press Officer, said that a survey of members last month found that 57% of respondents thought a reduction in business rates would be 'very helpful' and 20% said it would be 'of some help'. Twenty-two per cent said it was not relevant or that the issue did not apply to their business. Mr Morris pointed out that recent surveys by the independent Small Business Research Trust (SBRT) showed that business rates came third in smaller firms' list of concerns, after taxation and employment regulations. He added that the FPB welcomed the safeguards suggested by the Communities and Local Government Committee that councils would first have to secure agreement from local businesses and also, where larger increases to business rate were proposed, hold a ballot among local firms. However, the FPB disagreed with Natalie Evans, head of policy at the British Chambers of Commerce, who was quoted as saying: "We believe business is willing to pay." "At the FPB, we believe that most of the 25,000 businesses we represent are very reluctant to pay more in business taxes," said Mr Morris. "Faced as they are with increased insurance costs and bills for complying with recent legislation on maternity and holiday benefits, they certainly do not need to be shelling out even more. The problem is that it is often not certain how much a local project will benefit local businesses. And whatever benefits there may be are in the future, the costs are now." However, Mr Morris agreed with Ms Evans that any increase should only take place with the agreement of local firms and after a vote among them. FPB member Rachel Andrews, Financial Director of Andrews Computing Services in Hemel Hampstead, London, said: "We already pay a huge sum of money in business rates and get very little in return. Any further increase would make it very difficult to remain competitive." She said that break-ins had resulted in her insurance premiums being increased by 10% and heavy expenditure of security systems. "An increase in rates would make it even more difficult to be competitive." John Mitchie, a partner in Charles Mitchie of Aberdeen, which owns 7 pharmacy shops in the NE Scotland, said he could not agree to any such proposal for increases in business rates "unless it guarantees private sector involvement". He thought any legislation should link extra money with the 'Business Improvement Districts' scheme, where local businesses join together to fund local projects. This would ensure that extra expenditure was business-driven and -led, rather than emanating from the council. Nathanial Peers, a director of Peers Jewellers in Llandudno, said he was concerned about the proposal. Over recent years business rates have risen sharply. "This year there has been a dramatic jump," he added.