Small Businesses asked for their views on business rates

THE Thames Valley region of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) has consulted with its members over the Government’s promised review of business rates. By doing so it has been able to establish what business owners would like to see included in the FSBs formal submission to the government in the autumn.

David Knowles Leak

David Hawes, Thames Valley Regional Chairman, Federation of Small Businesses, said: “The case for reform of Non Domestic Rates (NDR), or business rates as they are commonly known, is well rehearsed and broadly accepted; suffice to say that the current system is expensive, complicated, opaque, regressive and slow to respond to changes in economic conditions. It has a disproportionate impact on certain sectors, and discourages investment.

“Business rates are the highest costs most small businesses face after rent and staff wages, and they place an excessive burden on small businesses. The Government is rightly supporting businesses with small business rates relief and transitional rates relief. This support must continue until a new system is in place.

“The case for overhauling business rates is overwhelming and it’s good to see the Government recognise this. Small businesses would like to see the ambitious review deliver tangible reform, not just empty words. The FSB also welcomes the opportunity for local authorities to benefit from the growth and success of local businesses by retaining additional business rates revenue raised locally. This should encourage local authorities to take steps to support their local businesses to grow and prosper.”

Martin McTague, FSB Local Government Policy Chairman, added: “Our aim is to get more small businesses exempt from paying Business Rates and to make the system fairer for those small businesses still left within it.”

The FSB has stated that it has been instrumental in getting this issue onto the national policy agenda, and that in England, FSB pressure has resulted in the creation of the Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) scheme, a temporary doubling of the rate of relief, and several extensions to the duration of double relief. “FSBs pressure for reform of the system has convinced the government to launch two reviews of the system,” it claims. These are, an administrative review of how the current system operates to deliver reforms to the current system in time for the 2017 revaluation, and a more wide ranging structural review looking into fundamental reform.

“The outcomes of the review will be fiscally neutral and aligned with the government’s wider fiscal plans,” said David Hawes. The review will report its findings by the time of the Budget in 2016.