250 traders caught in business rate plea backlog

In 2018 the borough council generated £37 million in rates that was used to fund frontline services.

There are a total of 249 outstanding appeal cases lodged by business owners before 2017. With the oldest appeal dating back six years.

No case figures are available for 2018.

The revelation follows concerns by Ironbridge businessman David Jackson that his rates had doubled in the past year.

Mr Jackson, of Bears on the Square, said the premises has been set rates calculated at £240 per sq mtr while another business 50 yards away was set at £120 per sq mtr.

"Telford & Wrekin massively increased the business rates last year. I don't understand where they have had got the figures from," Mr Jackson said.

In response Telford & Wrekin's finance chief Councillor Lee Carter said: "You are talking the amount that is due as a bill. If your rateable value has doubled then your business rate bill will go up. In terms of the business rate doubling, that is done by the Valuation Office Agency.

"They will have gone to his premises, made an assessment and all of a sudden land him with a big bill. There are countless of instances of this happening across the borough.

"But another complication is that everyone can appeal.

"But there is a huge backlog which for a business can mean while you don't pay while you're appealing, if that appeal is unsuccessful and is back dated that lands you with an even bigger bill. It's a double-edged sword. The appeal system is so back logged that the council can't accurately project whether it will get all the business rates it thinks it's going to get."

"Business rates are effectively set by the government and based on the rateable value of a property on a five-year basis and reviewed on a five-year basis by the Valuation Office Agency which is part of the HMRC.

"We act as the collection agent for the government. We retain 50 per cent locally at the council, 49 per cent is then sent off to government and one per cent is given to the local fire authority.

"Rates increase each year in line with inflation. However, what you normally find is that the government has introduced a number of reliefs. They have done so recently for small businesses, they have done so for pubs, there are a number of different reliefs.

"It's quite a complicated tax and it's being perceived as an unfair tax particularly by shops on the high streets," Councillor Carter added.

Supersavers, based in High Street, Dawley, shut its doors in December after 20 years blaming slow sales and the pressures of rent and business rates for its demise.