FSB welcomes small business rates cuts

The Federation of Small Businesses has announced it’s delighted by the news that small businesses in Wales won’t have to pay as much in rates next year.

In surprising news this week, the Welsh assembly government announced it’s lowering the rate at which bills are calculated. It comes as a welcome relief to many small and medium-sized businesses, who were worried their rates would increase after a recent revaluation of premises. The FSB said many SME’s across Wales had received revaluation notices from the Valuation Office Agency recently, which suggested bills would rise for the 2010-2011 period.

On Tuesday the Welsh assembly government said it would lower the non-domestic rates multiplier from 0.489 to 0.409. This is a set figure which is used in conjunction with a business’s rateable value to produce its yearly rates.

Janet Jones, Wales chair of the FSB, said they had “lobbied long and hard” for the cuts and she was pleased the government were finally listening. It’s hoped this new revaluation could provide many struggling businesses with some much-needed relief.

An assembly spokeswoman said the government did not have the power to delay the property revaluation exercise, which runs every 5 years, but they had reduced revaluation rates to help many Welsh businesses that were straining to survive in the current economic climate.

The UK is now officially in it’s longest ever recession having contracted by 0.4% in the last quarter. This new evidence seems to contradict many expert’s who announced the recession was over in September. The UK Gross Domestic Product (GDP) is estimated to have contracted for 6 consecutive quarters – the first time this has ever happened since records began in 1955.

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