Port in a rate storm
PRESSURE is building on the Government to reverse a decision that will see port-based businesses billed for millions of pounds in retrospective business rates while they struggle with a recession-induced downturn in shipping volumes.
While Teesport operators insisted the impact locally was nowhere near as dramatic as those suffered in other areas of the country, Stockton valuation office confirmed that almost a third of Teesport’s 71 tenants were affected to some degree.
Martyn Pellew, PD Ports Operations Director for Teesport, said: “I know of two companies affected - one more adversely than the other - within our port because it is a land hungry business and the rateable value has a lot to do with the land space you use.”
He said, however, that firms had known the changes in rating procedures, which shift responsibility for paying the business tax from the port operator to individual companies, had been coming for some time.
“We operate Hull container terminal.
“We knew it was coming and made allowance in our accounts for it, although it has come in as a bigger number than we thought.
“One of the companies on the Humber which we had looked at with a view to acquisition had failed to make allowance for the rates and that was the reason we walked away from the deal.”
John Irwin of Middlesbrough-based property consultants storeys: ssp said it was unacceptable that the valuation office, an agent of the Inland Revenue, should be pursuing business for a retrospective tax at the same time as the IR was claiming it would be sympathetic to struggling firms.
An application for judicial review of the new rating procedure has won backing from North-east MEPs, including Fiona Hall who said it was putting British ports at a disadvantage to the rest of Europe.
A spokesperson for the Stockton Valuation Office said it would be “defending its actions”.
Shipping volumes through Teesport are expected to be between 10-15% down when official figures are released later this month.
