Council rates

[vicbrown]

Im thinking about opening a shop in wigan town centre in a shopping centre, there is a shop thats been empty for about 6 months that has a rent of about 16,000, a service charge of 3,500 and a the council rates are 5,200 a year, does any one know if councils can be negotiated with when it comes to council rates? me and my business partners are all 20.....

cheers x

[..DN..]

Vic,

This website might be useful for you, government website for business rates: http://www.mybusinessrates.gov.uk

This page deals specifically with rates relief: http://www.mybusinessrates.gov.uk/ra...efs/index.html

DN

[vicbrown]

Brilliant mate, thank you

[Martin]

Originally posted by vicbrown
does any one know if councils can be negotiated with when it comes to council rates?

Yeah this is sometimes possible.

You can get Small Business Rate Relief. I know where I am you can normally get a deal of 50% off your business rates for your first year when starting a new (small) business.

Have a look on this page from the suggested site above http://www.mybusinessrates.gov.uk/ra...efs/index.html

[SBar]

I don't think it's just for the first year Martin.

We claim relief on one of our offices but pay full rates on the other one, even though the total value is below the threshold. This is the only downside really, eventually we'll probably move to a single larger office which we can claim full 50% relief on.

[porphyria]

If a property has been empty for some time, a council will sometimes offer 3 months rate free.

The fact that it's been empty gives you leverage with the rental company for cheaper rent.

Have they given you a reason as to why it's been empty for so long?

[moneyman]

these are great generalisations. personally the best tack is to see business links and see if they know the guy with the discretion.
aproach it as "we are setting up a shop selling xyz and we are looking at various locations (mention a few in another borough/town) but were thinking about going to wigan, what can you offer us in the way of incentive?" if you start with "we have chosen a site...." they have no reason to help if they dont feel like it. talk local jobs (the magic word even if your business plan mentions 6 employees and you only actually take 3 that is a last minute change not your fault and well whose to know?).
been there and it works.