Environment Secretary John Gummer is considering widening the 50% rate relief proposals in the Local Government and Rating Bill to include village pubs as well as rural shops.
Gummer’s disclosure came during the second reading debate on the bill in the Commons. He said: “The Bill will automatically halve the rates bills of the only general store and the only post office in the village. This will reduce the rates bills of some 6,000 shops by an average of £500 a year.”
The Government anticipates that the measures would reduce the rate bills of up to 30,000 businesses in England and Wales by £20m.
While the opposition parties broadly welcomed the principles behind the proposals, Liberal Democrat David Rendel added there was “a certain illogicality” in some relief being mandatory and some discretionary”.
Shadow Environment Secretary Frank Dobson welcomed the Government’s recent change of policy against out-of-town shopping centres and greeted its “belated recognition” of the damage its planning policy was doing to village shops and town centres.
PA News (Parliament) 08/11/96
