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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.


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