KHOODEELAAR! noting that Boris Johnson, who 'pleaded' to the Big Biz bankers at Davos yesterday, treated ordinary London businesses with contempt as he let Simon Milton issue additional burdens on them and forced them to pay for CRASSrail ..

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1200 GMT
London
Friday
29 January 2010

Editor © Muhammad Haque

KHOODEELAAR! noting that Boris Johnson, who 'pleaded' to the Big Biz bankers at Davos yesterday, treated ordinary London businesses with contempt as he let Simon Milton issue additional burdens on them and forced them to pay for CRASSrail ..


[To be continued]

Boris Johnson ignores pleas as firms hit with maximum Crossrail tax

Ross Lydall and Pippa Crerar

29.01.10

Thousands of firms will see their business rates increased by a minimum of £1,100 a year after decided to press ahead with the maximum possible levy to help fund Crossrail.

The Mayor has rejected pleas to ease the introduction of the levy, which will be imposed for up to 31 years from April across all 33 boroughs, to avoid placing extra costs on businesses struggling to recover from the recession.

But Mr Johnson has exempted a further 4,000 small firms from the fee by raising the rateable value threshold of businesses eligible for the charge from £50,000 to £55,000.

The fee, which will help fund £4.1 billion towards the £15.9 billion commuter line, will be paid by 46,500 medium and large firms — half based in the City or Around 80 per cent of London firms will be unaffected.

Mr Johnson said he was “acutely aware” of the effect of the recession, but the funding for Crossrail “must be protected”. There remains the fear that the line could fall victim to a cost-cutting Tory government.

The line will run from Maidenhead and in the west to Shenfield and in the east. It is due to open in 2017 and will boost London's rail capacity by 10 per cent.

Mr Johnson said: “I cannot overstate the importance of this rail project. The Tube and rail network will heave a huge, collective sigh of relief as breathing room is created on previously packed-to-capacity commuter lines.”

City Hall estimates that around 23,000 of the firms paying the charge will pay £2,500 or less each year. Charities and sports clubs will pay 20 per cent. The levy will also be imposed on empty buildings.

Initially the Mayor only planned to impose the charge on 41,000 firms but a revaluation increased the rateable values of thousands of firms, taking them above the £55,000 threshold.

Business groups welcomed the Mayor's decision. of London First, which represents the capital's leading businesses, said: “This small concession shows he has listened. It's not as much as we would have liked — we would have preferred a small concession for all contributors — but it does demonstrate that Boris is sympathetic to our concerns.”

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KHOODEELAAR! noting the REUTERS news agency paraphrasing the FT as Boris Johnson takes advantage of the convenient 'news day' [preoccupied with Tony Bliar's Chilcot brazenness, due to start in 4 hours from now, at 0930 GMT Friday 29 January 2010] to announce penalty for London ordinary businesses which Boris is lumbering with 25 year long tax for CRASSrail scam [1]

0530 GMT

London

Friday

29 January 2010

Editor© Muhammad Haque

KHOODEELAAR! noting the REUTERS news agency paraphrasing the FT as Boris Johnson takes advantage of the convenient 'news day' [preoccupied with Tony Bliar's Chilcot brazenness, due to start in 4 hours from now, at 0930 GMT Friday 29 January 2010] to announce penalty for London ordinary businesses which Boris is lumbering with 25 year long tax for CRASSrail scam [1]


http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE60S00H20100129?type=marketsNews

MAXIMUM CROSSRAIL LEVY TO HIT COMPANIES

London mayor Boris Johnson will announce plans on Friday for the capital's businesses to pay the maximum extra levy to fund Crossrail for the next quarter of a century. Johnson's plan to impose the two pence in the pound business rate supplement from April comes in spite of warnings that the tax could damage companies' chances of recovering from recession. The levy is being introduced to finance 4.1 billion pounds of the Greater London Authority's contribution to the 16 billion pound Crossrail scheme.

KHOODEELAAR! TOLD London FT for six years: Crossrail is crass. Crossrail will stifle business. It will be debts-causing, wasteful. Now, the FT confesses! Yet it fails to correlate all key facts and events. Causes, effect and costs

0045 GMT

London

Friday

29 January 2010

Editor © Muhammad Haque

KHOODEELAAR! TOLD London FT for six years: Crossrail is crass. Crossrail will stifle business. It will be debts-causing, wasteful. Now, the FT confesses!  Yet it fails to correlate all key facts and events. Causes, effect and costs

[To be continued]

Business faces maximum Crossrail levy

By Bob Sherwood, London and South-East Correspondent

Published: January 29 2010 00:03 | Last updated: January 29 2010 00:03

London businesses will pay the maximum extra levy to fund Crossrail for the next 25 years, in spite of warnings that the tax will hurt companies’ chances of recovering from recession.

Boris Johnson, London’s mayor, will announce his decision on Friday to impose the maximum allowable 2p in the pound business rate supplement from April, coinciding with a big jump in rates for many central London companies.

EDITOR’S CHOICE

Mayor faces business backlash on Crossrail - Jul-30

Call for shires to pay Crossrail tax - May-19

Johnson backs Tories over Crossrail - May-16

London businesses denied Crossrail cash vote - May-07

Tories avoid Crossrail pledge - May-06

Threat to Underground upgrade plans - Apr-29

Business organisations had advised him to hold back from levying the full rate, which is being introduced to finance £4.1bn of the Greater London Authority’s contribution to the £16bn Crossrail scheme.

The British Retail Consortium warned last year that there would be “considerable opposition” to the levy, while London First, which represents large businesses and has been a champion of Crossrail funding, urged the mayor to set the supplement at less than the maximum and phase it in.

But the only concession the mayor will make is to raise the threshold for the increase to businesses with a rateable value of £55,000 from £50,000. He said that would exempt up to 4,000 properties, excusing more small and medium-sized businesses from the levy. However, many of those properties will be occupied by public sector and not-for-profit bodies such as schools, meaning the number of companies excused will be lower than the 4,000 headline figure.

The timing of the supplement has been a problem for the mayor as a national revaluation, also taking effect in April, has pushed up average London rates while those in almost every other region have fallen.

But Sir Simon Milton, the mayor’s chief of staff, said the rate revaluation would raise up to £20m more than budgeted, which allowed the mayor to increase the threshold to help more small businesses. He denied that delaying the levy or phasing it in was a realistic option as it would increase borrowing costs. He told the Financial Times: “Delay will end up costing more.”

Advisers indicated that the mayor was determined not to renege on London’s commitment to pay for Crossrail for fear a future government might also backtrack on the deal. Sir Simon added: “When one part of the funding agreement starts to get unstitched, you are increasing the risk of unstitching the rest.”

The supplement will continue for 24-31 years. As businesses in the core districts of Westminster, the City and Canary Wharf have higher rateable values, those companies in boroughs with Crossrail stations will automatically contribute more to the cost of the rail project. Those in Westminster are expected to contribute £67m towards the £219m raised in 2010-11.

Mr Johnson said: “I understand that in these difficult times the additional business rate will be a greater burden to our smaller businesses.

“Our final proposals now set the right balance by exempting a further 4,000 of those firms that initially faced a disproportionate burden to those larger organisations in the centre, the West End and the financial districts that will benefit significantly from Crossrail and should therefore pay the greatest share of the construction costs.’”

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