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Property chiefs warn chancellor over cuts

AHEAD of today’s emergency Budget property leaders have warned that recovery in the North East will be threatened if growth, enterprise and new schemes of financing infrastructure are ignored.

The British Property Federation (BPF) is also calling on business secretary Vince Cable to keep his promise to re-introduce full empty property rate relief.

Newcastle has been blighted by its empty high street; the number of shop vacancies is 4% above the national average, reaching 16.66% in December 2009.

The BPF warned that the situation could be made worse if the government fails to reinstate full empty property relief for vacant commercial and industrial properties.

Given the added pressure likely to be endured by shop owners if VAT is increased, BPF believes that rental growth could be hampered with empty property rates compounding the problems by making owners of unused properties pay full business rates on them during the downturn.

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This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Ruth Mitchell .