Northern power firms want a say on taxation

“IT is very important to have dialogue with the business community” — Chamber policy director Chris Fletcher

BUSINESSES would feel more involved in the Greater Manchester devolution debate if they had an exclusive vote on issues surrounding taxes collected from local firms.

And decisions on tax rates and distribution should be decided by local firms, not councillors or mayors, says a poll of the Oldham branch of the Greater Manchester Chamber of Commerce.

Almost 70 per cent of members said local firms should get a vote on non-domestic rates and how the proceeds are spent. Members said local firms were best-placed to vote on business rates — rather than borough councillors, mayors or other organisations such as Local Enterprise Partnerships.

Members were polled about devolution and other topics by Chris Fletcher, the Chamber’s director of policy.

The Chamber has been urging Greater Manchester businesses to engage with the English devolution debate. It hosted a discussion on the Chancellor’s “Northern Powerhouse” vision during the Conservative Party conference in Manchester, when Mr Osborne announced plans to let English councils keep all the proceeds from business rates in their area.

Mr Osborne called it the “biggest transfer of power” in recent times but Labour has warned that hard-up councils could race to the bottom by cutting non-domestic rates.

All businesses currently pay a standard business rate set by central government. Councils keep half and the Government redistributes the rest. Under the new plan, all councils will able to cut the local business rate, while devolved city regions such as Greater Manchester will be able to increase the rate by two per cent. This could bring in extra cash to spend on local improvements.

Mr Fletcher told the Oldham meeting there were questions about how the new local business rates plan would work, and asked if Oldham businesses would prefer money raised locally to be spent on local improvements or go into a Greater Manchester fund for projects to benefit the wider region.

Central government currently takes in £11 billion in business rates and redistributes £9.4bn in grants