Covent Garden London
The heart of London's West End
Millennium '40% Rate Rise' Warning
A Warning has been issued to Covent Garden traders that they could see rates rise by up to 40 percent in the millennium.
The start next April of a new five-year rating cycle coupled with a special hike in the Uniform Business Rate mean that businesses in the continually burgeoning area are almost certain to face increases well above average.
The five-yearly cycle brings with it a revaluation of properties by the Inland Revenue. And because Covent Garden has boomed since the last valuation in 1995, it is virtually certain that the continuing high demand for property there means rates will go shooting upwards. Increases in the government's Uniform Business Rate are normally kept to the rate of inflation, but in a revaluation year this constraint is set aside.
A source at Camden Council warned, "Covent Garden has been doing well since 1995 and extremely well over the last l8 months, so a thirty to forty percent rise could not be ruled out."
The government might try to soften the blow by bringing in another transitional relief scheme. But so far, no announcement has been made.
Traders who feel when they get their rate demand that their premises have been wrongly valued can, of course, appeal.
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