Goverment MUST ACT QUICKLY to save our ports

Port Rates Fiasco

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Goverment MUST ACT QUICKLY to save our ports

Wednesday, 24 March 2010 10:37

Port Rates Fiasco

The Tories have now promised a moratorium on claims for the retrospective payments which doesn’t achieve much because if local authorities are forced to begin proceedings with the end of the financial year, it will take legislation to stop it, and, in any case, it doesn’t do anything to remove the retrospective demands. But it does provide a lever to pressure government into doing something - which it’s refused to do up until now.

The while problem is due to the Valuation Agency which got 600 assessments wrong in 2005 and missed out 700 others. Indeed many of them won’t be assessed until the start of the new financial year next month so it’s obviously unfair and vicious to demand retrospective payments back to 2005.

We’re now approaching crunch time. Some local authorities like N.E Lincolnshire (well done) have held off so as not to damage their ports. Some firms have paid a first installment on the government’s pay over eight years scheme to forestall the evil day. But the councils will be forced to begin recovery proceedings as the new financial year begins.

So our message to ministers is ACT QUICKLY. And take away the Valuation Offices draconian powers to impose huge bills on companies out of the blue. No business friendly Government can allow a Government agency to ruin businesses because of its own incompetence.

The fight to stop the retrospective rating demands on port companies goes on. As port MPs, we’re now transferring the argument from John Denham, who agrees with us but needs the money to do anything, to Alistair Darling and the Prime Minister. We wont get anywhere for a week because the Budget eclipses everything. This means putting the argument over and over again to ministers and advisers who should know it already given we’ve been on about it for so long.

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