Top trainer slams council over business rates

Paul Cole said he can no longer afford to pay tens of thousands of pounds per annum on empty horse boxes - but that West Berkshire Council insists on charging full business rates on them,.
As a result, he said, he is having to demolish historic stable boxes, among them the one that housed Derby winners Blakeney and Morston.
Mr Cole of Whatcombe is one of Britain’s most successful trainers, winning the highest performance races, classics, group races and handicaps.
He was Champion Trainer in England in 1991 and has won the Champion European Trainers four times.
However he said his business is being crippled because West Berkshire Council insists on his paying a full £600 in rates on each box and has refused a discount for those lying empty
He added. “it’s running my business into the ground.”
Yard secretary Jenny Hogan explained: “Increasingly at the moment, owners are training abroad because the prize money is better. We currently only have about 40 horses in the yard.
“We have repeatedly asked the council to reassess the rateable value of empty boxes but they insist on us continuing to charge us the full business rate, whwether they are in use or not. Meanwhile we have to maintain all the other facilities such as the swimming pool, horse walker and so on.”
Mr Cole, aged 70, said he was particularly despondent because he felt he was having to destroy part of the area’s horse racing heritage.
He added: “I only hold this in trust - other trainers will follow me in future and I had kept the Derby winners’ boxes just as they had always been. But now I’m having to remove 45 boxes because of the council’s ridiculous way of doing things.
“They are forcing people out of business with their business rates. They won’t allow me to make a living and I’m certainly not the only one affected by this.”
The door of the box which housed Blakeney and Morston has been saved for posterity but the structure is already partially demolished.
Council spokeswoman Joanne Bassett was unable to discuss uindividual cases but said: “Thc council has a responsibility to collect rates on behalf of the Government's National Non-Domestic Rating Pool. The income to that pool is redistributed to all councils on a formula basis and this council receives a significantly smaller amount of redistributed income than it pays in to the pool - I make this point to avoid any misunderstanding that the council is an any way profiting from the situation.
“There are limited options available to the council in the granting of a reduction in rates payable when part of a property is unoccupied. If it is a short term situation we can ask the Valuation Office Agency to apportion the rateable value of the occupied and empty parts of the property. We can then base charges on the rateable value of the occupied part only, but after a period of three months legislation dictates that we must levy a full charge.
“In the longer term there is little that the council can do and it is a decision for the individual business as to the action it can take in reducing its rate liability, for instance relocation to smaller premises or physically altering the property in order to achieve a reduction in rateable value.”