JAMES BREAM

INDYREF and Brexit helped coin the cliché that “businesses like certainty."

Benjamin Franklin famously said “nothing is certain except for death and taxes."

So being logical, you could presume the certainty of this phrase would make business predisposed to the formality of the concept of taxation.

Of course human thought processes don’t always follow a logical progression which brings me back to tax and more specifically business rates.

The current system is far from ideal and credit to the Scottish Government which is undertaking a review - the Barclay Review. Real kudos if it actually acts on it.

However, we are stuck with the existing system for now and we are about to deliver what will be a killer blow for some companies and their employees.

Currently, revaluations are carried out every five years, but the latest set are based on a property’s value in April 2015 at the height of the market in Aberdeen city & shire. The new bills will land in April 2017 following two years of large scale redundancies and contraction for many companies and a significant downward shift in the property market linked to the generally difficult business environment in the region due to the downturn in oil & gas.

It is estimated that this revaluation sees average increases in the region of around 20% to 30% for offices, and commercial and industrial spaces.

Specifically, we already know of two local businesses looking at rises of 259% and over 300% respectively in their business rate bills.

The reality here is that with almost no notice and after budgets are set, companies here are facing massive hikes which- we are being told- will lead to more job losses, halted investment, reductions in skills-related activities, movement of activity or worse.

A successful Scotland needs a strong and buoyant North-east. Doing nothing will undermine any existing efforts being made and will significantly harm the momentum of the initiatives being implemented to drive economic diversification.

There is time to act, but this needs collective will from the Scottish Government and local government to work together to find new money and use the levers they have.

It is not only the Chamber asking – we are simply taking the lead on behalf of business and other trade associations with a regional and national compass which are backing the request as well.

At the time of writing we have just left a meeting with the Finance Secretary Derek Mackay to discuss this issue. We were pleased he agreed we are facing exceptional circumstances and further committed to working with the North-east to find a way to mitigate the impacts we can foresee.

This is a first step but we’re hopeful that Derek will show he is the real Mackay by demonstrating leadership on this issue and that the North-east works with him to find the right collaborative solution.

Businesses can check their valuations at www.saa.gov.uk and calculate their new ‘bill’ athttps://www.mygov.scot/business-rates-calculator/#introduction

James Bream is research and policy director at Aberdeen & Grampian Chamber of Commerce