Business rates and council tax "not fair for the north" says South Yorkshire Mayor

The Mayor of South Yorkshire is hoping that new devolution powers will assist him in adapting business rates to better support the local area.

During his monthly Q&A with The Star, Mayor Oliver Coppard addressed concerns raised by Dan Kirkland, who runs Hillsborough's Spot on Snooker Club.

Dan argued that businesses like his face higher tax rates due to the space required to fit in snooker tables, however the size of his premises does not necessarily reflect how many customers they serve.

“Snooker is important to the country and even more important to Sheffield, but we've lost over half a dozen clubs in as many years,” he added.

“Business rates, rent and energy costs are the biggest contributing factors to failure - not to mention increased National Insurance and wages, but let's face it, if you can't afford to pay someone a living wage then you probably shouldn't be in business.

“The fundamental fact is, people will only pay so much. People can only afford so much.”

Dan also invited Mayor Coppard to visit the club again for a game.

“My snooker hasn't improved sadly since last time I was there” the mayor joked.

Addressing Dan’s concerns, the mayor added: “There’s lots of people that struggle with this very problem.

“Clearly there are a lot of warehouses in South Yorkshire now that don’t necessarily have a lot of people in them, but have a lot of storage space and there’s very similar problems a bunch of different premises face.

“I think both this issue and council tax are ripe for reform. We absolutely need to change how some of these taxes work - council tax in particular doesn’t work for the north.

“So places down south are paying less in their council tax despite being much bigger properties than places up here - it just isn’t right.

“There has to be a way for us to look at that in the round.“

Mayor Coppard said that the Government recently put forward fiscal devolution plans that will see him and other mayoral authorities across the country begin receiving a portion of income tax to be spent on local projects.

However, while the mayor says this is a “good start” these changes do not allow him to set tax rates and so he is still having to work within the current system

He added: “I'd like to look at all of this in the round over time and hopefully Andy Burnham will listen to me when I say this isn't fair for the north.”

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