Message to George: rates are sky high BY JEFF WELLS wdbusiness@b-nm.co.uk Businesses across the Greater Bristol area face a combined £506 million tax bill unless the Government changes course on business-rate increases. Last year, companies in Bristol, South Gloucestershire, North Somerset and Bath and North East Somerset paid combined business rates of £490.3 million, in figures supplied by CVS Commercial Valuers. That will rise tied to the recent inflation figure of 3.2
Phil Smith of Business West says the rates system is broken
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The length in months of the proposed rates freeze BUSINESS DEBATE westerndailypress.co.uk
Share your opinions on this issue with other Western Daily Press readers online at www.westerndailypress.co.uk per cent RPI, adding £15.6 million to the bill. RPI is generally the higher of the two common inflation measures. A growing number of business organisations are calling on Chancellor of the Exchequer George Osborne to change the system in his Autumn Statement to be delivered on December 5. Business West and the British Chambers of Commerce are calling for a two-year freeze in rates, costing the Treasury £1.7 billion, and wholesale reform thereafter. Managing director Phil
Smith said: “There is no question that the business-rates system is broken. This is a tax that hits companies of all sizes long before they a make profit, and acts as a drag on business growth and investment. “The cost of spiralling business-rate bills is without a doubt the main issue facing fir ms’ ability to grow.” Rating expert Ben Batchelor-Wylam, from Colliers Inter national’s Bristol office, said: “Business rates are a make-orbreak issue. They are the main reason why potential occupiers do not take new space. Worse still, the incremental creeping cost of rates is pushing many businesses over the edge. Enough is enough. The retail sector is certainly not out of the woods, and recovery remains very patchy across the region, let alone the UK. “Freezing rates will give many shops the breathing space they need to see out the recession. “Realistically, fundamental changes will not happen overnight – but change is needed.” He said that in the longer term, changes to the system could include dropping the link to RPI, addressing issues around online retailers and brining forward the next revaluation. The Confederation of British Industry has called for the Government to commit to full reform, and in the short term to cap the annual businessrates increase at 2 per cent and introduce an incentive for companies to move into vacant property to boost local high streets. In the meantime, CVS Commercial Valuers and Surveyors is urging firms to appeal their bill. Rates are based partly on the rateable value of business premises, something that has not been reviewed since 2008 and is not due to be looked at again until 2017. But three quarters of businesses do not appeal their rateable value.
Students start revolutionary degree course A new course at UWE Bristol aimed at producing graduates with degrees plus experience of running their own businesses has just welcomed its first cohort of 37 students. The course structure is ground-breaking – no classrooms, compulsory lectures or exams – and has been introduced to the UK for the first time this year. Called Team Entrepreneurship, the degree course is based on methods pioneered in Finland and also run successfully in Spain and Hungary, and has been described as a revolution in management education. Course leader Carol Jarvis from UWE’s Bristol Business School said: “Running a real business – devising a product or service and selling it to customers – is what drives the students’ learning. All students have an equal financial stake in the companies they
Carol Jarvis is running the new business course at UWE Bristol
Chancellor George Osborne looks at the jet engine of land speed record car Bloodhound during a visit to the Bloodhound Technical Centre at Avonmouth near Bristol on September 12. Business leaders in the West are calling on Mr Osborne to change the business rates procedure PICTURE: CHRIS ISON/PA
create and will learn to manage the risks and rewards this entails. “We believe they learn better, and the information is retained, as they acquire knowledge when they need it. They learn by applying theory to practice and by reading material as it becomes relevant to them. The first group of students are already showing themselves to be confident, resilient, highly motivated team members.” The students meet in a hightech ‘hub’ rather than a traditional classroom, with areas for team meetings, workshops and ideas sessions. Along with the novel surroundings, the recruitment process was different too, based on a ‘taster’ day, group interviews and personal profiling. They have no set timetable, although they can attend any lecture from the Faculty of Business and Law, and work 9-5 each day during a longer academic year. This year, students have got the challenge of raising an average of £2,500 per person from their enterprises.
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