Harringay, Haringey - So Good they Spelt it Twice!
Business rates to be given to the local authority
George Osborne has just announced that he is going to allow councils to keep all of their business rates and be allowed to set them. This is a brilliant political move aimed at the city centre strongholds of Labour. As we all know how easy it is for local businessmen to get onto the council now we should perhaps be very wary of this.
"Right now, we collect much more in business rates than we give back in the main grant. So we will phase out this local government grant altogether. But we will also give councils extra power and responsibilities for running their communities. The established transfers will be there on day one, but thereafter, all the real growth in revenue will be yours to keep. So this is what our plan means. Attract a business, and you attract more money. Regenerate a high street, and you’ll reap the benefits. Grow your area, and you’ll grow your revenue too."
Tags for Forum Posts: business rates, conservatives, council
Replies to This Discussion
-
Permalink Reply by maggie on
-
What happens to the councils whose areas are without businesses or high streets? What about those that are already rundown and suffering deprivation and high unemployment or poorly served by transport,etc? These are the very areas that have suffered disproportionately from this governments policies; under Conservative governments the rich get richer and the poor just keep getting poorer.
-
Permalink Reply by matt on
-
That's a big change. Is there any info out there that shows the current business rates tax take for each borough per year? What's the current grant total for Haringey from the government? And does 'extra powers' mean the chance to vary rates for type of business/area etc within the borough? Camden/Westminster will do will out of this.
-
Permalink Reply by John McMullan on
-
It does mean that they can vary rates. They could potentially charge more for bookies, they could compete with other councils and they could be bent over a barrel by retailers such as M&S.
Rather deliciously it will provide more incentive to have a Mayor in Haringey because of the power mayors will have over infrastructure projects.
-
Permalink Reply by Michael Anderson on
-
Or charge less for bookies and payday loan shops if they want to get at least someone into empty commercial units so they have some kind of business rates income coming in.
The business rates system, although flawed as it is, is one way that weath can be redistributed across local authorities. The impact on more rural authorities or those where the commercial sector is in decline (Redcar comes to mind at the moment) is worrying.
-
-
Will mayors or business wield the power over infrastructure projects?
From the Guardian- "David Gauke, the Treasury minister points out that city-wide mayors will only be able to use the new power to introduce a new infrastructure tax - an extra 2p on the business rate - if they have the support of a majority of business members on the local enterprise partnership.
That means, in practice, that local business will have a veto over any proposal to levy this new tax."
-
-
Moar parking!!!!
© 2024 Created by Hugh.
Powered by
