UP FRONT
OPINION
Empty rates anger as government refuse
to back down
As the government plans to invest £10m to help the country’s bees, the property and retail industry is making
a last ditch plea for the scrapping of Gordon Brown’s empty property rates tax...
t comes as the campaign website set up by the British
IProperty Federation (BPF) reveals the shocking truth about
how the recession tax is also forcing Regional Development
Agencies, and a host of health and education bodies to
waste millions of pounds of public money paying empty rates.
Business secretary Lord Mandelson warned that firms
should not expect much help in the Budget 2009 and
his prediction was realised. “Many business sectors are
coming together with needs and requests for support,” he
said. “The government should not passively soak up the
demands. It needs to think through its own priority for what
support should be allowed to businesses.”
Meanwhile, an announcement by Environment Secretary
Hilary Benn will unveil £10m of funding to help secure the
future of the nation’s bees. Defra is itself paying more than
£1,285,000 in empty rates. “Aristotle identified bees as
the most hard working of insects, and with one in three
mouthfuls coming from insect-pollinated crops, we need to
support bees and other pollinators.” said Benn.
Back in the real world, big brands like Woolworths, Zavvi
and JJB closing stores has left landlords with thousands
of empty shops, while smaller firms wishing to cut back
on their space in an attempt to survive or preserve jobs,
have been prevented from doing this by having to pay full
business rates on empty space. While owners can demolish
buildings, those who simply hold the lease cannot.
ASDA’s Jonathan Refoy, said: “We are doing everything
we can to help people through the recession but empty
rates are making this much more difficult. Instead of
investing in regeneration and jobs, we have to pay this
unfair tax on vacant properties that we cannot let or
redevelop in the current market. This tax is an antiregeneration
measure.”
BPF chief executive Liz Peace, said: “We urge the
chancellor to reinstate empty rates relief at least while we’re
in recession. We’re not asking for a tax handout, but we
simply must ensure that we don’t force businesses under
and that more jobs aren’t needlessly lost because of a tax
policy thought up during a property boom.”
Pressing on with empty rates will cost the government a
lot more in the long term than it will raise in the short term.
Firms demolishing property, laying off staff or closing down
is bad news and empty rates will draw out the downturn for
many. Taxing something making no money is like making
the unemployed pay income tax.”
Redundancies are becoming more common as
companies look for the funds to finance the tax while
15 percent of shops are estimated to be empty over
the next few months.
Max Allen is a pensioner from Chatham in Kent with three
empty units he bought ten years ago to fund his retirement.
He said: “There is simply no way to get tenants in. It isn’t
a case of even lowering rents, there is just no demand.
Because of this recession, I cannot sell my properties and
because of empty rates, I now face bankruptcy.”
12 July / August 2009
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