Shropshire Council 'wants to hand out £650k business rate relief'
Shropshire Council says it wants to hand out as much of a £654,000 grant for business rate relief as it can.
The authority has made the comments after it was urged to speed up the process of setting up a discretionary rate relief scheme for small firms struggling with increased business rates.
The £654,000 grant is available from Government for 2017/18.
James Walton, head of finance, governance and assurance at Shropshire Council said it is important that a scheme designed by the authority can hand the money out to businesses fairly.
He said: "Shropshire Council intends to design and implement a relief scheme to take up as much of the discretionary grant of £654k as we can and we’re planning a scheme that would allow us to award the additional relief fairly."
However, Mr Walton reiterated comments from Councillor David Minnery, Shropshire Council's cabinet member for finance, who said that the authority first wanted to look at the distribution of two other forms of relief – additional support of up to £600 for small businesses, and £1,000 discounts for pubs with a rateable value under £100,000.
Mr Walton said the council is in discussions with a software company and other local authorities about developing the scheme – although there is no time scale for when it might be put in place.
He said: “There are a number of factors that we have to take into account first.
“The discretionary relief scheme is one of three new measures announced by the Government in March 2017 to assist businesses affected by increases in their rates liability. We’re currently considering whether it is sensible or even feasible to commence the design of a discretionary relief scheme when there remains uncertainty about the administration of the other two new reliefs.
"When designing the additional relief scheme we think it would be sensible to award relief in accordance with the other two new schemes first to avoid duplication and confusion.
“We’re also currently liaising with our software supplier and other councils to ensure that our scheme is robust and appropriate.”
Speaking at last Thursday's full council meeting, Councillor Roger Evans, asked if businesses would be compensated for lost ground in waiting for the scheme.
In response Councillor Minnery said: "I am not sure there is any provision to make up for lost ground but as in all cases we will try to be supportive and if we can help we will and of we cannot we will not."
A number of Shropshire businesses have voiced concerns over large rises in their rateable value following the most recent business rates review.
