LOCAL MP SAYS STOP THE SQUEEZE ON SMALL BUSINESSES

Tony Baldry calls for more support to manufacturing North Oxfordshire

North Oxfordshire MP, Tony Baldry, has raised concern over Government plans to introduce supplementary tax on business from next April.

In a White Paper published yesterday, to coincide with the Pre-Budget Report, the Government said it would introduce a supplementary tax of 2 pence on retail properties of more than £50,000 to be collected by local authorities.  The revenue raised will then used to finance projects such as transport infrastructure.

The British Retail Consortium has described the proposal as a “disaster”, with small businesses will also have little control over where the extra taxes are spent - the revenue gained will be channelled into projects nationwide, rather than existing problems locally.

Tony Baldry, who is meeting local manufacturing workers next week at a Lobby of Parliament on Wednesday 17 October, believes the proposal will hit North Oxfordshire's small businesses unfairly as the cost of retail property has risen substantially in recent years.  Tony Baldy also questioned the Government's motives by raising taxes through local authorities, like Cherwell District Council, but then not giving them the opportunity to invest the money locally.

Tony Baldry also condemned the Pre-Budget Report for dealing small businesses an additional blow with higher capital gains tax, a rise in the rate of corporation tax and a gloomy economic forecast for the year ahead.

Tony Baldry MP said:

“Manufacturing is already struggling, with large local manufacturing companies already squeezed by increasing red tape, business taxes, and an economic slowdown.  This supplementary tax will simply squeeze small businesses even harder."

"It is shameful that the Government is simply trying to shift the blame for raising this tax onto local authorities, by making councils tax further retail properties, but then not giving them the opportunity to invest the money locally.  The South East already pays more than its fair share of taxes, and this is yet another example of the Treasury refusing to invest the money back into the local economy."

"Small businesses in Oxfordshire will be hit even harder as the cost of retail property has risen substantially in the last few years.  After ten years of growth it is deeply worrying that Government borrowing and taxes are now going up."

"North Oxfordshire has fantastic potential, with great links to London and the Midlands, but small businesses should not be suffocated by the Government, they should be released from more red tape, more taxes, and more bureaucracy, and allowed to thrive in a competitive economy.”