Primarolo irks charity chiefs
Financial secretary Dawn Primarolo MP provoked an angry response from charity chiefs after hinting that 80% business rates relief for charity shops could be scrapped.
In her speech at the Charities Aid Foundation annual conference last week, Primarolo tackled the thorny subject of the relief, which generates a #480m annual saving for charities and a #30m saving for their trading subsidiaries.
The benefit has incited accusations of ‘unfair competition’ from High Street traders and led Primarolo to comment: ‘Any outcome of the tax review must not unfairly advantage charities at the cost of the commercial operators with whom they may compete.’
Shirley Scott, director of the Charities Finance Director’s Group, argued: ‘If this relief were taken away charities would have to ask the council for grants to help with the overheads, or increase the cost of care contracts.’ She added: ‘The private traders’ argument that charity shops sell the same goods does not hold water.’
Pauline Simpson, executive director of marketing at Scope said: ‘Less than 1% of our sales are new goods, so we aren’t a major threat to other retailers.’
Simpson added: ‘A change to business rate relief would effect our ability to provide support for cerebral palsy suffers. If we don’t provide these vital services, who will and who will pay for it?’
An Oxfam spokesman said: ‘We don’t see ourselves as competing with high street businesses. We sell secondhand clothes to people who can’t afford new ones and if the relief were taken away it would remove #3m (17.6%) from the #17m our shops contribute to Oxfam causes each year.’
The deadline for submissions to the consultation process is 1 December.
