Market scrooges ‘snatch back’ VAT

TAXING times . . . Mike Heyes at his Tommyfield chippy

MARKET stallholders have accused council chiefs of hijacking the VAT cut designed to boost the economy.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown slashed the tax from 17.5 to 15 per cent as part of a rescue package to help businesses and shoppers.

Traders at Oldham’s Tommyfield Market benefited this month but have now been told by Oldham Council that a rent increase of 2.5 per cent has been brought forward from April to January — immediately wiping out the benefit.

The council insists the timing is a coincidence.

Justin Brierley, who runs an indoor footwear stall, saw his rent fall to £2,057 a month. Now it is going back up to £2,102.

He said: “The Government is trying to help small traders by cutting VAT and then the council takes it all back.

“You only have to look at Woolworths to see what’s happening to retail at the moment. This is just another nail in the coffin.”

Shazad Hussain, who runs Blaze menswear, has decided to close two of his four units because of the huge cost of rents. He said: “In Oldham, we pay more than everywhere else in the North-West.

“I know stallholders who are paying half of what we’re paying for similar facilities and this rent increase piles on even more pressure.

“The market in Oldham is dying on its feet and decisions like this just make it worse. I don’t think I’d be the first stall holder to shut up shop.”

Mike Heyes, who runs Tommyfield Chippy, said: “The council has specifically put back on the VAT which was taken off. It thinks it knows better than the Chancellor of the Exchequer.

“We would have expected a rent increase anyway as they are a fact of life but it’s the fact that it was so specific. We went forward a step and then back again immediately. It’s sneaky.”

Ian Rothwell, of Best Wishes Card Stall in the indoor market, said: “Traders were left stunned as it comes at a time when every stallholder is under pressure to pay existing higher than normal rents.”

Council cabinet member for environment and transportation, Councillor Mark Alcock, said: “As part of the council’s commitment to producing a balanced budget, there is an option to increase all fees and charges by 2.5 per cent. This is proposed to come into effect from January 1. The reduction in VAT was entirely coincidental.”