Business Rates

I shall make some more progress. I want to make sure that others have a chance to contribute to the debate. I was speaking about a group of businesses that have been badly hit, which I hope matters to all hon. Members. Those businesses have gone into areas and tried to help them regenerate by setting up there and encouraging other businesses to do the same. They have done exactly what we all want them to do, which is to get in and provide jobs and facilities in areas that do not have them. Many of those companies have been successful and other shops have opened. What has been their reward? Their rateable value has gone up so they have lost their reliefs, especially in London, as we have heard from the Federation of Small Businesses. What has then happened to them? They face eye-watering business rate hikes. I am sure we can all quote examples. Here are a few from my London borough, Wandsworth. Shops on the Old York road in central Wandsworth have had massive hikes. The newsagent Masumin's business rates last year were £260 a month. This year they have shot up to £1,006 a month. The motorcycle business just down the road saw bills rise from £280 a month to £914 a month. The florist's business rate bills went up from £477 a month to £715 a month. The Northcote road, another well known Wandsworth community built around its shopping areas, is full of independent stores such as the Bolingbroke bookshop. Its rates have gone up from £570 a month to £875 a month. It is as if Ministers were looking for a way to hurt regenerating areas most. Surely these are the businesses creating jobs and providing facilities in areas that need them. We should be applauding and supporting them, but not this Government and not these Ministers. Ministers seem to have had an awareness bypass when it comes to helping companies, especially the smallest and most vulnerable, to survive the recession. We have had the withdrawal of transitional relief, the lumping of inflation-busting rises on businesses and no assessment of how either will affect businesses and jobs throughout Britain. It took a chorus of voices, from the Opposition, the Federation of Small Businesses and local authorities, to puncture Ministers' obliviousness to what was going on. That is why my hon. Friend the Member for Mid-Worcestershire (Peter Luff) introduced his private Member's Bill in March—to give the existing 50 per cent. rate relief for the smallest, most vulnerable companies automatically. Currently, they have to fill in a form to claim it, but only about half of eligible businesses do so and local authorities have to put resources into processing their request and doing outreach work to business communities to improve the take-up of the relief. We supported that Bill, along with the Federation of Small Businesses and many local authorities, which knew that they would save administration costs and be able to put them into helping businesses to develop. When it came to the debate, however, the Minister opposed the Bill.