CASE STUDY

A LEADING restaurateur has urged ministers to pass on a £42million Budget windfall to ease the business rates burden on small companies.

A multi-million pound package of measures to ‘transform’ Britain’s town centres will see nearly 500,000 firms south of the Border benefit from business rates relief.

Ryan James, who owns the Two Fat Ladies restaurants in Glasgow, said the extra cash should be used to provide a relief package to struggling firms.

Mr James, who is also chairman of the Glasgow Restaurant Association, said: ‘If there is £42million coming in, it has to be used for the benefit of the high street. And to do that, they’ve got to have a look at business rates.

‘There needs to be some radical thinking done on how the rates are calculated, and with this money coming in, it is a chance to almost rip it up and start again. It is especially needed for the hospitality industry, which may have been doing brilliantly in the past and could shoulder high business rates.

‘But times have changed and margins are slim, so it really needs to be looked at seriously to help a lot of businesses, who provide a lot of jobs, stay afloat.’

Last year a rates revaluation left thousands of small businesses facing crippling rates hikes. Criticism by the business community led the Scottish Government to introduce a transitional rates relief scheme, which limited the rises for hospitality-related properties.

Mr James said: ‘I am grateful for the transitional relief because that helped us a lot. Mr Mackay put that in place without any financial backing from the UK Government. Now they have this extra money, it really should be used to help businesses.’