A body representing small businesses across the UK has warned that a change in the law could drastically affect landlords of empty commercial properties and have pinpointed the city of Liverpool has a prime example.
Thousands of landlords across the UK pay their annual fees to the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in much the same manner as they pay their landlord insurance, and the organisation has come out fighting on their behalf.
The FSB is concerned that new legislation due to start in the spring of this year will impact heavily and adversely on many small firms and landlords across the UK. The new legislation concerns the paying of business rates on empty properties. At the moment small companies do not pay business rates on empty properties with a rateable value lower than £18,000. In April 2011 the rateable value threshold will drop to a meagre £2,600 meaning many owners and leaseholders of properties no longer generating cash will become liable for paying rates on the buildings nevertheless. To make matters worse the previous legislation included a 50% rate relief clause, this will not be available either after April and the new edict could well see some landlords paying more rates on an empty property than those who are running thriving businesses from theirs.
The FSB are trying to drum up support from MP’s and get questions asked about the situation in the House of Commons. Liverpool MP Bob Neil has been approached and Merseyside Chairman of the FSB, John Allen, said “The government has said that small businesses have a vital role in driving economic growth and getting the recovery on a firm footing, yet for some businesses this additional tax could tip the balance and force them into insolvency.
“All over this region there are properties standing empty through no fault of the landlords that own them.
“The result of this cut in the threshold without restoring the 50 per cent relief will make small business owners worse off than they were prior the 2009 change and significantly more so then they were in 2009 and 2010.
“We urge the government to look closely at this matter and, at the very least, allow the business to claim Small Business Rate Relief.”