MERSEY port companies reacted with fury last night after ministers ruled out waiving huge hikes in business rates – even as they admitted that firms would be driven to the wall.
Giving emergency evidence to a commit-tee of MPs, local government minister John Healey admitted companies should not have suddenly been landed with shock tax bills backdated three years.
But he said it was impossible for ministers to scrap backdating, because it would contravene EU state-aid rules and trigger legal challenges from competitor firms.
Instead, Mr Healey pledged that his officials were working “rapidly” on a scheme that would allow the worst-hit companies to pay their tax bills over several more years.
The suggestion was greeted with deri-sion by David Pendleton, the watching head of the Mersey Maritime Group, who warned: “Companies would still be put out of business. Even if the business rate in-crease is spread over three or four years, the liability will still sit on the books of that business. The Government is putting people out of work.”
