Yahoo News Scrap the rates hike
The British system of business rates is absurd, outdated and calculated in a most unfair manner – and all in a country that already pays the highest property taxes in the developed world. Why on Earth would the Government want to pile on the pressure with a revaluation that will only make things worse? It hopes to raise an extra £1 billion. For some parts of the country that means an increase for retailers of up to 400 per cent by 2022 – and charities, hospitals and GP surgeries will also be hit. At the same time, rates for the biggest supermarkets will actually fall. Companies that sell online will go untouched.
The goal of conservatism is not to keep the Just About Managings tied up with red tape – it is to liberate and transform them into Doing Rather Wells.
We would ask the Government what kind of high streets it wants to have? Ones that provide a wide-range of services – many of them locally owned? Or town centres that are dominated by the property market and a handful of charity shops that are aided by rates relief? Certainly there is a contradiction between Theresa May’s stated desire to help those who are Just About Managing and a revaluation that threatens to hit the hard-working. It would be better to scrap the revaluation, to put the needs of business first.
Resistance is growing: three former trade secretaries from the three main parties have voiced concerns about the rates increase. But aside from reviewing this policy, the Government needs to think more broadly about what it can do to help service industries thrive. Taxation and regulation need to come down; life after Brexit should be marked by enterprise and the freedom to take risks. After all, the goal of conservatism is not to keep the Just About Managings tied up with red tape – it is to liberate and transform them into Doing Rather Wells.
