SAVE OUR SHOPS

no longer hosts the twice weekly market after the council moved it last September to the other side of town. Reduced footfall has left the parade of family-run businesses teetering on the edge of survival.

The shops are also under pressure from a large Asda superstore next door as well as the nearby Galleria shopping centre.

Gift Hair Collection will have to pay £3,214 from April, up from £100 last year — equal to a rise of 3,115 pc.

Gift Nwachukwu, 32, who started the hair extension and wig specialist shop two years ago, says: ‘I simply cannot afford it. ‘I have been building the business up and have not paid myself for two years.’

The Government would argue that Gift technically faces only a 5 pc rise, plus inflation. This is because last year’s bill would have been £3,001 before small rates relief was applied. A 5 pc rise, plus inflation, would take the bill to around £3,214. But Gift Hair Collection is no longer eligible for the relief because the rateable value shot up from £6,200 to £17,750 in the latest revaluation — above the £15,000 threshold.

It follows big rent rises in the area, partly due to a strong student population

Gift says: ‘We provide a service from people with alopecia to hair extensions. I have trained four people, but I won’t be able to keep going. The Government should be supporting us, not forcing us to close.’

At Appleby’s fish and chip restaurant, the rateable value has rocketed from £6,500 to

£18,500. That means its tax bill is going up from £262 to £3,369, a rise of 1,186 pc.

Hasan Adakan, 49, of Appleby’s, says: ‘My family has been here since 1990. Shops here are already empty and more will follow.’

Samantha Mui, 36, has run the Rainbow Noodle Bar in Market Place for nine years..

She faces a hike from £152 to £3,266c — a 2,049 pc rise — after the rateable value of the shop jumped from £6,300 to £18,250. Nearby, Maz Taycur at Jenny’s restaurant faces the same rise. ‘It is a disaster’, says Samantha. ‘We cannot survive these rates. How can a small business like us carry on?’ Sammy Sabir, who runs the Best One convenience store agrees. He was exempt from the tax because his shop was below the threshold — but must now pay £2,799.

‘We even open Christmas Day and New Year’s Day to keep our heads above water,’ he says. ‘The value of the property may have gone up but business has not.’

Wei Wu, 39, a director of China Sky, a Chinese restaurant and takeaway, also fears he may lose his business. His rates bill will soar to £4,610 from £1,540.

Wei plans to appeal through the Valuation Office Agency. ‘If we lose we will have to think about selling the business,’ he says.

Experts say rental values, which decide business rates, have been pushed up by students at the University of Hertfordshire, as well as big hikes in council rents.

Nick Brown, chairman of Welwyn Hatfield Chamber of Commerce, which helped to collate the data, says: ‘There won’t be any community based businesses left soon. Let’s simplify and reform business taxes so they are based upon profits and are affordable.’

Jerry Schurder, at business rates specialist Gerald Eve, says: ‘Most occupiers in Market Place will benefit from transitional relief. But for the independents who have been benefiting from small business rates relief and will lose some or all of this, the leaps will be enormous — in some cases 32-fold.

‘Surely the Chancellor must announce in the Budget that he will reduce liabilities for genuine small businesses that are losing their small business rates relief.’

A Government spokesman says: ‘ Three quarters of businesses will be seeing a fall, or no change. The generous reliefs mean 600,000 small businesses are paying no rates at all, something we’re making permanent.

‘And across the country, there’s also a £3.6 billion scheme to support companies affected by the business rates revaluation.’