Forum Topic

Business Rates Northfields Ave and South Ealing Road

It is heartbreaking to witness so many independent shops in Northfields Ave and South Ealing closing down. The receipt of this years Busiess rates will inevitably see an increase in closures.The two streets have some of the highest rateable values in the Borough after Ealing Broadway. We are charged £415 -£435 Per Metre Square. By comparison, shops on Pitshanger Lane pay £360 per Metre sq. My monthly business rates is now £760 per month.I would like to protest to VOA to reduce the per metre charge to then be reflected more fairly and equally across the borough.If anyone can help me to do this, business owners, RICS, surveyours, politicians, please add your support.

Anne Smith ● 2939d4 Comments

One area you can already feel an impact of the decline of local traders is in charitable giving. It was always much easier to get prize donations for fundraising raffles etc from independent local businesses. The manager at larger chains would usually say they didn't have the discretion and that corporate giving was handled at head office. Of course a lot of times businesses would exaggerate their generosity and look to get far more benefit in free publicity than the value of their donation but that was much less of a problem than not getting a donation at all.

Helen Cavanagh ● 2919d

The big rises are partly due to the Government postponing the reassessments for several years so they would argue businesses have benefitted from lower rates previously and should have budgetted for the rise. The problem with this argument locally is that the increase is far higher in London than the rest of the country and rents in Ealing have also been going up at the same time. Add to this the squeeze on margins from online competition. This has made it next to impossible for smaller businesses to survive on the High Street. Larger chains can mitigate costs by appealing their assessments and imaginative tax planning.The dramatic reduction of the amount of commerce in our area that is done by companies that are owned and managed by people who live in the area is going to have significant social consequences many of which are unpredictable.

Andy Jones ● 2933d

I have made a mistake and I am very sorry. The Business Rates are set by a civil servant (a valuation officer) and although collected locally, they are passed on to central government. A proportion is returned to LBE. The jump I referred to above was the rates paid by a restaurant in Northfield Ave per annum before and after: £6,000 before and £10,000 after (rounded figures). Just another example of how good this government are with money. Remember, the Government has also hugely cut the grants to all local Councils leaving them in a dire situation, struggling to cover their statutory duties, let alone any extra services.

Arthur Breens ● 2938d

This is an enormous increase. £6000 to £10,000 per year. Who made this decision? Let them reply and explain. How could anyone think you can cope with this sort of increase?You supply us with services and we have to vote soon and I might vote to preserve the services you supply. How can I vote for such numpties? And the other lot produced the problem by cutting Ealing funding.

Arthur Breens ● 2938d