Agenda item

This report advises the Committee of a notice of call-in received from the Labour Group of a Cabinet decision (61/2013) not to create a local discretionary rate relief system at this time.

Discussion:

The Chairman welcomed David Frais, Linda Hutcheon and Pauline Bingo to the meeting to speak on behalf of Chatham High Street Traders on the call in item.

The Chief Finance Officer outlined the background to the report considered by Cabinet on 12 March 2013 and explained that Clause 69 of the Localism Act 2011 had introduced a new power for local authorities to award local discretionary relief where it was in the Council Tax payers interests to do so.

He confirmed that the Cabinet at decision 61/2013 had agreed not to create a local discretionary rate relief system at this time.

The Chairman then invited the three Chatham High Street Traders to address the Committee.

David Frais, Linda Hutcheon and Pauline Bingo on behalf of the Chatham High Street Traders requested that the Committee refer the decision back to Cabinet for reconsideration based on the following factors:

·        Many Chatham High Street Traders have been trading in the High Street up to 30 years and wished to remain trading in Chatham.

·        In the past few years there have been many changes in the Chatham area that have had the affect of reducing the footfall of visitors to the Town Centre including roadworks, changes to the one way system and the development of the new bus depot.

·        The national average of vacant premises within High Streets currently stands at 14.6%, however in Chatham High Street the level of vacant premises is currently 16% which exceeds the national average.

·        Chatham High Street can be considered as a special case in isolation to other Medway High Streets as their vacancy rates are much lower at 4% in Rainham, 6.5% in Gillingham, 7% in Rochester and 8.8% in Strood.

·        The level of vacant shops and Charity shops in Chatham High Street is off putting to customers.

·        The current one way system in Chatham has had a detrimental affect on incoming traffic from Brompton and Gillingham resulting in reduced visitors.

·        A number of traders are coming to the end of their leases and are considering whether to continue running their businesses in Chatham.

·        Traders are already affected by the recession and can only reduce expenditure so far, therefore a discretionary rate relief for a temporary period of two years would go some way towards helping small businesses and independent retailers.

·        Medway Council has identified that it wishes Chatham to be a City Centre and yet the town is dying as more and more traders are leaving.

·        Current rates and rate reviews are not in line with landlords rents.

·        There is a need to make Chatham Town Centre more attractive to visitors.

·        The support requested is for small and medium businesses and would therefore not apply to the larger corporate companies and banks.

The High Street Traders then answered questions put to them by the Committee.

The Committee then discussed the issues raised and Members made the following points:

·        The Government is encouraging local authorities to help small businesses and therefore this was recognised as a national issue that was not unique to Medway.

·        Only the Chatham High Street Traders have requested that they be considered for discretionary business rate relief; no such request has been made by any other group of High Street Traders.

·        Over 30 businesses co-signed the letter appended to the report, many of which employ staff who primarily reside within Medway and are therefore Council Tax payers.

·        As many of the businesses in the High Street are well established, should discretionary business rate relief be provided, the Council would not be seen to be supporting poorly run businesses.

·        The Council should consider how it can encourage increased footfall into the Town Centre by other means e.g. the staging of events in the High Street area.

·        The Council should ensure that it submits bids for any Government funding that may be available e.g. recent schemes such as Porta’s Pilots and the City Deal Scheme.

·        There would be a cost involved should discretionary business rate relief be applied to small businesses in Chatham High Street.

·        It would be unfair to consider applying a blanket discretionary business rate relief for small businesses and independent traders in Chatham High Street without considering other High Streets in Medway.

·        If the Council wishes Chatham City Centre to be identified as a centre of excellence, it should set out to define the area to be included within this definition and then undertake work to attract major companies to the City Centre, but in the meantime emergency aid could be given to small businesses and independent traders to help them.

·        Signage to Chatham Town Centre should be improved so that drivers do not bypass Chatham.

At the conclusion of the debate, Councillor Maple proposed that Cabinet decision 61/2013 be referred back to Cabinet for reconsideration based on the High Street Traders request for discretionary business rate relief for small businesses and independent traders for a temporary 2 year period. This proposal was supported by Councillor Christine Godwin.

On being put to the vote this motion was lost.

Decision: 

The Committee agreed to take no further action on this item.