North Wales Assembly Member Mark Isherwood has called on the Cabinet Secretary for Economy and Infrastructure to engage with small businesses in Arfon and across the region to address their concerns over businesses rates.
Raising the matter in the Assembly Chamber yesterday, Mr Isherwood said:
“The Welsh Government promised to cut taxes for small businesses and instead extended the existing Small Business Rate Relief Scheme, which had been temporary. This was described by the North Wales Federation of Small Businesses, representing businesses from Arfon right across the region, as blatantly misleading and the worst form of spin-doctoring.’
“How, therefore, will you respond to the extra £16 million announced in the UK Autumn Statement for the Welsh Government to spend on business rates? I believe they said that they remain a huge financial burden for small businesses. At present, the rateable value at which businesses pay business rates in Wales is only half that in England and the size of the firm, unlike England and Scotland, is not taken into account, putting smaller firms at direct disadvantage. So, how will you engage with small businesses in Arfon and their sector representatives, such as the Federation of Small Businesses, to address those concerns?”
In his response, the Cabinet Secretary, Ken Skates AM, stated: “one person within the FSB and many others in the FSB in North Wales have welcomed the Welsh Government’s cut to business taxes for small and medium-sized businesses in Arfon.”
Mr Isherwood added “Although Labour offered a tax ‘cut’ to all small businesses in their 2016 Manifesto, and the Welsh Government’s ‘Programme for Government’ promises to deliver ‘a tax cut, meaning smaller bills for 70,000 businesses’, within six months of Government this ’tax cut’ was instead revealed to be an extension of their existing temporary Small Business Rates scheme. The power to set business rates is one of the strongest tools at the Welsh Labour Government’s disposal to get the economy moving, yet they remain a huge financial burden for small businesses in Wales”.