Skip to main content

40,000 WELSH FIRMS FACE AN INCREASE IN BUSINESS RATES

Finally, some good news on the business rates front, especially after the thousands of words I have written on the subject over the last month.

As I had predicted on Saturday, the Welsh Assembly Government (WAG) has followed England and reduced the multiplier which helps to calculate business rates.

However, this will still mean that 40,000 businesses across Wales are still facing an increase in their bills next April at a time when they need every penny they can get.

Therefore, there is still much that needs to be done to deal with these higher bills and I remain concerned that the Assembly still denies that it does not have the power to delay the property revaluation exercise, which runs every five years, and so help those small firms which are facing increases in their rates.

There is simply no reason why, under the powers it has through the Local Government Act, why it could not suspend the payments by companies which are being hit hard by the revaluation exercise for at least one year, given that such support could essentially be classed as a rate relief, and I hope that pressure will continue to be exerted on Ministers to re-examine this critical issue.

I suspect this prevarication over revaluation has more to do with political cowardice and a reluctance to admit the truth rather than doing what is right for small firms.

However, let's get one thing clear about this before any politician decides to be disingenuous with the truth about how much WAG is helping small firms. In this case, there has been no additional support from WAG for Welsh business.

As the Valuation Office stated recently, the fact that this was not an income generating exercise meant that WAG had to reduce the multiplier to a point where the business rates scheme was cost neutral. Therefore, it is not WAG that will be paying for the decrease in business rates for 64,000 businesses across Wales but the 40,000 firms which will be getting an increase in their business rates as a result of revaluation.

Therefore, unlike Scotland, the fight for a fairer business rates system for Wales goes on and I hope that the FSB, the IOD, the CBI, as well as politicians across Wales, will continue to pressurise WAG for a fair deal for our small business community and to follow the lead of Scotland in ensuring that the majority of our small firms pay no rates at all.


Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

THE IMPORTANCE OF FRANCHISING

When we talk about start-ups and entrepreneurship, rarely do we discuss the potential of franchising not only as a way of establishing new ventures in the economy but also as a method of growing existing businesses. According to the British Franchising Association, franchising is the granting of a licence by one person (the franchisor) to another (the franchisee), which entitles the franchisee to own and operate their own business under the brand, systems and proven business model of the franchisor. The franchisee also receives initial training and ongoing support, comprising all the elements necessary to establish a previously untrained person in the business. This enables individuals to start their own businesses without having to develop their own ideas and utilising an existing brand and established market. Of course, whilst each franchise business is owned and operated by the franchisee, the franchisor controls the quality and standards of the way in which the business is
Read more

THE MANUFACTURING STRATEGY FOR WALES

Last night, I received the following comment on the previous post relating to a piece I had written back in early 2007 about the state of the manufacturing sector in Wales. "Dylan, you seem to be ignoring the fact that manufacturers in Wales have written the manufacturing strategy. Small and large manufacturers, all represented at the Manufacturing forum, have co-written this strategy. WAG has recently supported this strategy and have funded a co-ordinator with resources. Manufactures are happy with this progress as they are following the strategy they wanted. I know that the Conservatives have attacked the strategy as they seem to think that WAG wrote the strategy. They couldn't be more wrong. The Manufacturing Strategy was written by manufacturers, for manufacturers and is supported by WAG. If you don't agree with this, then I can invite you to the next Manufacturing Forum and you can explain to the manufacturers how their strategy is wrong....I appreciate that there is
11 comments
Read more

Change your business through change

All business organisations, especially entrepreneurial small firms, must cope with an ever changing business environment. However, small firms have a very limited ability in being able to control and relate to changes in the environment, although this can depend on the context of change. For example, if a major customer changes increases its order, the entrepreneur should be able to predict events and actions with regard to the timing and consequences of such a change and forecast any changes in the required resources and cashflow. Given this, the entrepreneur can undertake rational short-interval planning activity in order to underpin organisational control. However, much of the change facing business today is largely unpredictable in terms of its timing and its consequences. In other words, such change is open-ended, with it often being unclear what is changing or why it is changing. For example, the effect of the 9/11 bombing of the World Trade Centre was largely unexpected and its
Post a Comment
Read more