“Certainty is needed on business rate costs” is the claim from North Wales Assembly Member, Mark Isherwood.
Mr Isherwood attended last month’s Wrexham Town Centre Forum meeting to discuss the issue of business rates with town traders, and then submitted written questions to the Welsh Government on their behalf. The answers since received from the Cabinet Secretary for Finance and Local Government in the Welsh Government, Mark Drakeford AM, have been presented to the Wrexham Town Centre Forum.
Mr Isherwood has been working with local campaigner and Forum member, Andrew Atkinson on the issue of fairer rates and certainty for our small businesses. They are calling for certainty on small business rate relief being extended and for the threshold to be raised.
The Welsh Conservative AM said:
“The Valuation Office Agency (VOA) is currently revaluing all non-domestic properties and the new list will come into force on 1 April 2017. The Welsh Government must assure traders that they are on their side, that they understand and are fighting for them.
“Welsh Conservatives have for the past five years been calling for a fairer deal on business rates. The Labour-led Welsh Government has now stated that it will announce a new business rates relief scheme this month. With shop vacancy rates still in free-fall, the Welsh Government must use all the devolved levers available to them to reverse this trend. The UK Government has brought in changes to support small businesses in England, and the Welsh Government must do the same in Wales”.
Mr Isherwood also hit out at Carwyn Jones’ knee jerk approach to Wrexham town centre issues, where the First Minister recently called for more residential housing in the town centre.
Mr Isherwood said: “To tell Wrexham people what is needed for their town is just plain wrong. This is a knee jerk reaction in place of a proper piece of work to find a solution to a major problem”.
Mr Atkinson added:
“The comments from the First Minister are very defeatist, we know what needs to be done in Wrexham and the issue of business rates is by far the single biggest issue that would fix our town centre.”
“I have long called for the periphery of our town to feature a small bit of residential or alternative uses to commercial, this would condense the town as it goes off in all directions now. For the First Minister and others to talk about this as if the town is there to meet a housing need is wrong. If for example a shop paid £20,000 a year in rates and they would pay £1,000 a year in Council tax if they converted it to residential, it doesn’t take a genius at the Welsh Government to spot the incentive to cut the rates, it would be more money for them than residential and provide the biggest boost towards filling our empty shops.”