Tuesday 4 August 2009:
KHOODEELAAR! Told you so! That Big Business has got the occupant of the ‘Onion’ in London SE1 by the Borises!
Why else would the current incuymbent in that increasingly discredited office play pathetic second fiddles to the secret, vicious, lobby that says that all else may suffer but CRASSrail must be paid for..
Through the noses of people including some of the rather smaller scaled and medium sized businesses! Boris Johnson is being hyped up just as Ken Livingstone had been.. And the unreal, unjustified and the unsubstantiated hyping cannot be doing the cause of ordinary people in London any good at all…
[To be continued]
Strong opposition predicted to Mayors 2% Crossrail levyAugust 2nd, 2009
by Simon Rattray
The Crossrail project will receive funding from a 2% levy on business rates, paid by those in buildings that have an assessed value of £50,000 or more. The new plan was disclosed last week by London Mayor, Boris Johnson.
The new levy will come into force in April and affect around one fifth of business premises in London.
The Mayor said large businesses in London would benefit from “playing their part” in the future investment of London. The rail link will cost £15.9 billion and is due to be completed in 2017. Its aim is to reduce congestion in the City and create faster commuter times. Of the £15.9 billion project total, the GLA is to contribute £4.1 billion, which it will raise from this new levy.
Companies which operate in a building with a value of over £1 million would be responsible for up to 33% of the total levy collected, it was estimated. Given that commercial property taxes are already due to rise in April, and London will see higher rises than in any other part of the UK, this levy is highly controversial.
BRC Director General Stephen Robinson said retailers would not recoup the money they would be forced to pay out and that there would be strong opposition to the proposed levy.
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Mayor faces business backlash
By Bob Sherwood
Published: July 31 2009 03:00 Last updated: July 31 2009 03:00
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Boris Johnson, London mayor, is facing a backlash from business against plans to raise more than £4bn from the capital's hard-pressed companies to fund the Crossrail scheme.
The British Retail Consortium warned there would be "considerable opposition" to the proposal to levy a business rate supplement from April.
The retailers' body predicted that Mr Johnson's plan, issued yesterday, to impose the maximum allowable 2p in the pound uplift on rates risked undermining companies' recovery.
Bob Sherwood
Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
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London Plans 2% Commercial Property Tax for Crossrail (Update1)
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By Colm Heatley
July 30 (Bloomberg) -- London Mayor Boris Johnson today published a plan to fund the city’s Crossrail transportation system by levying a 2 percent supplement on taxes for commercial real estate with an assessed value of 50,000 pounds ($82,520) or more.
The measure will be introduced in April and will be limited to an “estimated” one fifth of London’s business premises, the mayor’s office said today in an e-mailed statement.
“Despite the economic climate it is essential that we do not allow our investment in the future to falter,” Johnson said in the statement. “Through this levy, larger London businesses will be playing their part in ensuring London a future from which they, and all Londoners, will benefit.”
The planned 15.9 billion pound rail line is designed to cut journey times and congestion in the city. It is scheduled for completion in 2017 and Johnson’s Greater London Authority is responsible for providing around 4.1 billion pounds of the costs, which it hopes to raise through the new levy.
Large businesses occupying properties with an assessed value of 1 million pounds or more are likely to contribute more than one-third of the annual tax, the mayor’s office said. Some categories of property taxpayers such as sports clubs and charities will be fully or partially exempted from the levy.
The tax may undermine an economic recovery, the British Retail Consortium said. Retailers may pay 250 million pounds before they see any benefit, the group said in an e-mailed statement.
The planned levy will follow a general increase in commercial real estate taxes scheduled for April that is greater for London than any other region of the country, the group said.
“London retailers will pay out far more than they can ever hope to get back,” BRC Director General Stephen Robinson said, predicting “considerable opposition” to the plan.
Businesses affected by the proposal can submit comments by Oct. 22 and a final plan will be issued in January.
To contact the reporter on this story:
Colm Heatley in Belfast at cheatley@bloomberg.net. Last Updated: July 30, 2009 06:50 EDT
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