Business rates hike hits Welsh Business

Cowbridge Road - average increase of £1500

Thousands of small businesses face paying hundreds of pounds more in business rates next year. Now Cardiff has learned that firms on High Streets across Wales will be hit with higher bills because of a revaluation which comes into effect next April.

The Government’s Valuation Office Agency (VOA) carries out a revaluation of all rateable values in England and Wales every five years.

The next revaluation is due to come into effect on April 1st, 2010. All properties will have their rateable value assessed on the valuation date of April 1st, 2008.

Research undertaken by the Welsh Conservative Party’s economic commission demonstrates that thousands of businesses, including those in some of the country’s most deprived communities, will be hit by the rates hike. Examples include:

In Cowbridge Road East, Cardiff, only one firm out of 390 along Canton’s main shopping street is not facing a bigger business rates bill, with all the others having an average increase of 25 per cent, or around £1,500 per business.

On Mostyn Street, Llandudno’s main shopping area, businesses will be paying an additional £550,000 which equates to an increase of 15 per cent on their business rates.

In Merthyr Tydfil’s High Street, 84 per cent of all businesses will face an average business rates increase of 16 per cent – an average of £1,500 per business

In Aberystwyth, public houses face an average increase of 29 per cent, equivalent to £2,450 per business.

Tenby’s hotels are facing an average increase of 27 per cent in their business rates for 2010, equivalent to an average of £2,800 per business.

Professor Dylan Jones-Evans, who chairs the commission, said raising business rates in the middle of a recession could be disastrous for many small firms across Wales.

He added: “I am astounded that during a time when every penny counts for the survival of small businesses, the Welsh Assembly Government has done nothing to stop the major increase in business tax bills next year.

“Worst of all, it seems that even small businesses within our most deprived communities will be faced with a massive increase in their rates bills

“The Assembly Government is responsible for this form of taxation, yet has failed to realise that it is exactly the worst sort of tax during a recession.

“Unlike other forms of taxation on firms business rates remain the same regardless of the performance of the business as it is based on the property occupied by the business and not on turnover or profitability.

“To many businesses it is a fixed cost that must be paid regardless of success.

“It is one that becomes disproportionately higher for many small firms as their income reduces.

“While an increase of a couple of thousand pounds in business rates may not seem much to those in Government, it could mean the difference between survival and failure, especially for many small shops up and down our High Streets.”

Shadow Minister for the Economy David Melding AM said: “This is the biggest tax hike small businesses will have seen for five years – and bills will land on their doormats next April just weeks before the general election.

“During the last Assembly election campaign Plaid Cymru promised that if elected tens of thousands of businesses would be exempt from business rates.

“Two years after entering government and nothing has been done to keep this pledge.

“This tax hike will go to the heart of every community and every High Street in Wales.

“In March Welsh Conservatives said we would scrap or cut the level of business rates for up to 90,000 firms across Wales.

“Measures such as this are vital to help the Welsh economy emerge from recession and to ensure small businesses get the help they need.

“The Assembly Government has failed to show the ambition shown in Scotland on business rate relief or along the lines we proposed for Wales earlier this year.

“Instead, they appear content to roll over and allow this massive tax hike to go ahead without any support for the firms that will be affected by it.”

Businesses across Wales will receive bills based on the new valuation by April next year. The Valuation Office Agency says the revaluation is not designed to raise extra revenue from business rates – it is used to ensure that business rates liabilities are redistributed in line with changes in the property market

Premises subject to business rates are given a rateable value by the VOA. Local authorities use the VOA’s assessment of a property’s rateable value to calculate business rates bills. The rateable value is based on the likely annual open market rent for the premises at a particular date. Rateable values are reviewed every five years – this is called a revaluation. They were last updated in Great Britain on 1 April 2005, based on market rents at 1 April 2003. Properties that have been changed since the last revaluation (eg extended) can be reassessed.

The VOA has updated the new rateable values which are effective in England and Wales from 1 April 2010, based on market rents at 1 April 2008. Details of every 2010 valuation can be found on the VOA website: http://www.2010.voa.gov.uk/rli/en/advanced