Despite its weasel words this government couldn't give a damn about smaller business.
For years Amazon has been creating vast profits whilst paying the bare minimum of tax to the Exchequer.
For years Amazon has been creating vast profits whilst paying the bare minimum of tax to the Exchequer.
Giant online retailers are flush with cash and always find devious ways to evade paying tax to elephantine and lumbering governments.
Not so the small independent retailers of Kensington and Chelsea. Getting money out of them is like shooting ducks on the ice.
Squeezing the living daylights out of them is easy.
Every time the landlord raises the rent the Government rubs its hands in glee knowing that it will be able to extract even more money in business rates.
Every time the landlord raises the rent the Government rubs its hands in glee knowing that it will be able to extract even more money in business rates.
A small shopkeeper paying £40,000 a year has to find nearly £20,000 to pay business rates on top....and that’s before they finance stock and pay staff.
You have to be very brave to set up shop these days and don't expect help from this government.
One of the more idiotic proposals in its review of Business Rates is the repatriation of the tax to local councils who will use it to revitalise the local economy!
Local business doesn’t need councillors and officers advising them how to be entrepreneurial; councils know how to spend money.... but they haven't a clue about making or saving it.
It’s time for Small Business to fight back against Big Government.
An example of the damage this government is doing to the economy...
A good friend of the Dame owns several small businesses in Kensington and Chelsea.
His appeals to the Valuations Office have still not been agreed seven years on!
That’s over £100,000 he cannot plough back into the business.
His appeals to the Valuations Office have still not been agreed seven years on!
That’s over £100,000 he cannot plough back into the business.
But, for more damaging to the overall UK economy is this.
He tells the Dame that the only way he can maintain sufficient margins to pay business rates and rent is by buying in China.
He says, “ what’s the point of that? I want to be able to source in the UK which I could if I didn’t have a government strangling my business”
He says, “ what’s the point of that? I want to be able to source in the UK which I could if I didn’t have a government strangling my business”
Emma Dent Coad and Greg Hands, the two relevant MP's need to do something. The entire character of the Borough is being ruined by the destruction of the small, niche shop.
ReplyDeleteYes @15:53 RBKC 's Chain Store Massacre is unwelcome, just look at Kings Road and remember how wonderful it used to be - now pretty much all gone. Kensington High Street is a shambles and just another high street. WHO AT RBKC HORNTON STREET CARES?
ReplyDeleteSuccessive governments have conned the public into believing that income taxes have been reduced by successively raising business rates to the point that entire streets are decimated. This is connected to the time when business rate payers lost the right to vote in local elections.
ReplyDeleteIn recent years greedy landlords boosted shop rents to unsustainable levels. Online shopping has changed everthing. Astronomical rents are no longer sustainable. But even if the rent is reduced, these huge business rates remain payable. If the shop loses money, the business rates are payable. If the benant disappears, the landlord must find the business rates from his unpaid income.
Wake up it's called Globalisation.
ReplyDelete