443 city businesses failed to pay rates

Dozens of Peterborough businesses failed to pay all their business rates in the last financial year leaving an unpaid bill of more than £1.6 million.

Details released by Peterborough City Council show that 443 business defaulted on all or some of their business rates in the financial year 2022/23 – sending the amount owed in that year to more than £1.6 million.

Now one business leader has warned the number on non-paying enterprises could increase in future years if action to lower the rate of inflation is not successful.

The figures have been released under a Freedom of Information request and show that in 2018/19 the number of business rate non-payers was 263. That figure rose to 314 the following year and plummeted to 192 in 2020/21 during which the Government announced relief plans to ease the burden of business rates on some business sectors during Covid-19. The number of non-payers rose to 230 in 2021/22.

The figures also show reveal a startling rise in the amounts of business rates owed to the council. In 2018/2019 the outstanding amount was £533,599.26 but that rose the following year to £687,762.14. By 2020/2021 the council was owed £719,490.86 in unpaid business rates but that amount dipped to £699,979.59 in 2021/2022. The total owed rose to £1,689,393.68 in 2022/2023.

Vic Annells, chief executive of the Cambridgeshire Chamber of Commerce, said: “It is difficult not to see there being an increase in future years in the number of businesses that are unable to meet their obligations, unless inflation is quickly brought under control. During Covid-19 there was help for some businesses with the payment of business rates but much of that help is not there now and that may have left some businesses in difficulty.

“The rise in inflation means the cost of doing business is higher and will mean more companies unable to pay their bills. The cost of doing business is the other side of the cost of living crisis – every additional penny paid to employees is a cost to businesses and has to be recovered. Margins are so tight, it is reflected in price rises.”

The number of businesses in Peterborough failing to pay some or all of their business rates bill has reached a five year high.