Business rates must fall to save communities – Bill Jamieson

Not all that long ago, the mantra was that businesses should be obliged to pay hefty rates to support local communities. How could firms survive without them?

Shops play a vital role in creating genuine communities, says Bill Jamieson

But now we are finding that the opposite is also true: that businesses make communities – and when there is an exodus of firms, communities also wither – as local authorities are slowly coming to realise.

Now the pressure is growing for a re-think on business rates – and the need for a sharp reduction.

Some 51 retailers down south have written to the Chancellor calling for reform, and David Lonsdale, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, points out that the burden of business rates remains onerous here in Scotland too.

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The poundage/tax rate, he points out, is at a 20-year high and 20,000 commercial premises in Scotland – of which a quarter are retail – are paying more for the large firms’ rates supplement than competitors or counterparts down south. April’s increase in the poundage rate added £13.2 million to the rates bills of Scottish retailers.

“Firm action”, Mr Lonsdale writes, “is needed to reduce this burden, return the large business rates supplement to parity with England, and scrap legislative plans for a levy on workplace parking.”

The problem, of course, is by no means confined to the big supermarkets. Latest figures show footfall across all stores fell by 2.8 per cent in July – a third successive month of decline. The town centre vacancy rate remains at 9.8 per cent, with one in every ten shops lying empty. Out-of-town superstores bring their own problems.

And a coffee shop in the corner with pastries is no substitute.