The Knaphillian

With the piece on the home page for concerns over businesses in the village all feeling the pinch, is there any possible way that the village can negotiate with WBC for a period of reduced rates. 2 years for example? I was thinking of something similar to the way stamp duty was adjusted for a period of time.

Cllr Whitehand - any thoughts?

A local authority has to balance its books one way or another, and if the money doesn't role in from central Government on their annual allocations, or from domestic Council Tax payers (because Government places a cap on CT increases),. then the only other source of revenue to support such a scheme is increases in Uniform Business Rates for other businesses in the local area, which no doubt would go down like a lead balloon.  It would simply be a case of robbing Peter to pay Paul.  The other solution is revenue savings which simply means cuts in services or the local authority borrowing money to support revenue services, which is a completely flawed idea.  Borrowing should only be for investment.  Ultimately, we're all in the same boat so we've all simply got to ride out the storm, although I quite like the idea of having a mutiny and replacing the captain at the helm.

Hi,

I would love to instigate a tax freeze or a reduction on taxes for new retailers to help encourage small shops to get established in Knaphill and in fact in any village ,and did put it to the powers that be for discussion, sadly it wasn't financially viable. As the previous e-mail post states, books have to be balanced.

There is the possibility that shops can apply for a proportion of their rates to be held back based on a 'hardship' case.

But ultimately what we need is more local shops and one way to encourage that is to make sure that WE ALL use them and not drive off to the big superstores otherwise we end up only with the shops that can and do make a profit. Over the years the smaller retailers have gone out of business for want of regular custom.

Melanie Whitehand

How much does the council generate in rates from an empty shop?  If there are no business rates to start with, then allowing a business which would not otherwise exist in the borough a period of exemption does not cost anything, and in the longer term would generate rates when they exemption period ended.

Exactly my thoughts! Get the empty shops filled with at least someone paying SOMETHING to the council...

Melanie - can you draft a letter to all the businesses to explain that they can apply for the discount in cases of hardship? I'm just wondering if any of them know.

My understanding is that the relevant information is probably given with the tax bil every year when the new  Council tax notices are sent out from the Council offices.

Cllr Melanie Whitehand