Do Sunderland businesses claim what they're entitled to?

I was wondering  how helpful Sunderland Council/Labour have been to small businesses in the local area, and I decided to put in a Freedom of Information request to see what the uptake of the government's Small Business Tax Relief scheme. The council isn't allowed to say who is claiming this, but strangely enough, they are allowed to say who isn't! Bureaucrats! Anyway, the results were very interesting. I asked:-

Q. The number of small businesses with a rateable value below £12,000 in the Sunderland area, which is the current threshold for Small Business Rate Relief.

A. There are 2792 properties in Sunderland with a rateable value below £12,000.

Q. The number (and percentage) of these businesses who are eligible for but not claiming Small Business Rate Relief.

A. 2075 (74.32%) of those properties referred to in (a) are not currently claiming Small Business Rate Relief.

Q.  How does the council inform businesses whether they are eligible for this, if indeed they do so?

A.  We actively promote Small Business Rates Relief, information is included with bills and is explained fully on the council’s website. We also send out application forms and inform businesses during all contact with them that they could be eligible.

 

So in other words, three quarters of all businesses are entitled to claim money back from the council, but don't! Outrageous! You'd expect our esteemed councillors to shout about this to the rooftops, wouldn't you. It would make them look good. But then, it would also impact on the amount of money that the council claws into its' coffers. It's a simple enough choice. Give businesses money to help them, or keep it for things like  those high salaries. It was in the news last week that the chief executive and 11 of his executives were paid £1,662,768 last year! £229,547 of that was for the chief executive himself!

You can see the full list at:-

https://www.whatdotheyknow.com/request/small_business_rate_relief_25

Some interesting things emerged. As well as the many business addresses listed, there were several other types of business facility on the FOI list, which must obviously be eligible for making claims. Some examples are:-

(i) Advertising hoardings - I suppose there's a rental cost for these which is claimable.

(ii­­) Telecommunications masts and receivers - I know these pay land rent. Obviously another tax loophole.

(iii) Rented office facilities

(iv) Car parks. Quite puzzling that the council list has its own carparks on, e.g. Raby Road Carpark, Washington (item 1726). Also a few schools, and recreation grounds. Is the council saying it can claim back tax on its own property so it doesn't have to pay itself? One of those internal markets or limited companies? Or did they just copy and paste the info from another document?

(v) There are a number of charities, sporting and volunteer organisations on the list. Is the council saying these are liable for tax relief, but it's not telling them? Very charitable. 

All I can say is, it raises a lot of questions (and hackles) even in somebody like me with a very basic knowledge of tax. It really needs the research skills/advice of a tax expert or accountant.

Did my predictions work?

So were my first ever election predictions any good? Well not much! It's more of an art than  a science, and something I need to work on. Still, it's fun.

Party	Prediction	Reality	+/-
Labour	47	50.4	3.4
Conservative	12	11.5	-0.5
LibDem	7.8	1.4	-6.4
BNP	6.5	2.9	-3.6
UKIP	17.8	24.2	6.4
Independents	3.6	9.4	5.8

Anyway, I was closest with the Conservative result, not bad with Labour and not good (!) with the rest. Possibly some of those annoying incumbency factors - such as the fact that local candidates were preferred on the ground; independent locals did better than expected, and local support on the ground was crucial. I happen to know that the LibDem team was very small, and couldn't build up support in such a short time despite heroic efforts (noticed by the media!).

As for the result, I'm glad that a woman, (who had a proper job for once) got in, but I wish it was us.

Psephology of South Shields 2

As promised, here are the general election results for South Shields since 1983, to give a flavour of how strong a Labour Seat it is. I would have blogged earlier, but not in the greatest of health this week. (The things I could blog about the Health Service!)

Year	LibDem	Labour	Conservative	UKIP
1983	22.7	46.5	30.9
1987	15.5	57.9	25.7
1992	12.8	59.8	27.4
1997	4	71.4	14.6
2001	16.8	63.2	16.9	2.3
2005	19.7	60.5	17.2
2010	14.2	52	21.6

 

As you can see, Labour has won the seat every time, with a particularly good result in the year Tony Blair was voted in, 1997. Interestingly though, after that, satisfaction with the Labour MP seems to have declined by around 20%, quite a big drop, though how much is down to Bliar and how much to Mr Miliband is a debateable point. I point out, not entirely neutrally, that his nickname according to the South Shields bloggers, is Mr Invisible.

1. How does this compare to the local election results?

A reminder of how the parties did in the local elections in 2010 and 2012. A comparison of the results shows that the relative places of the parties are pretty much the same, except for the independent figure, which represents an amalgam of several candidates rather than just one - more candidates stood locally, in the strong South Tyneside electoral tradition. The pollster Nate Silver considers that local election results are more representative of peoples' innermost convictions, so if the 2012 results are any guide, this should be an interesting election. Certainly, the big parties do very slightly better in general elections, probably because of the popularity of the independents.

Party %	2010		2012
	Local	Gen Election	Local
Labour	48.7	52	59.4
Conservative	14.4	21.6	12.2
Lib Dem	7.2	14.2	0
BNP	8.5	6.5	4.9
Green	1.4	2.1	0.5
Independent	15.6	3.6	17.6

2. So what will happen this time round?

Oh I love the fun questions. Well in 2012 Labour had 59.4%, Conservatives 12.2 and LibDems didn't field candidates (but had 2.4% in 2011). These are the most recent results for the area, but UKIP has only ever fielded a candidate once in a national election in this area - they got 2.3% in 2001.

Here are the national predictions from the big polling companies:-

Poll 01/05/2013	UKIP	Con	Lab	LD	Other
Survation	24	29.5	20	16.5	4.4
Comres	22	31	24	12
YouGov	14	30	39	11
Average	20.0	30.2	27.7	13.2	4.4

A while ago, after Eastleigh, I played around with the voting % and hypothesised how well UKIP would do in the Northeast:-  http://www.blogger.com/blogger.g?blogID=900837753505324236#editor/target=post;postID=1362365473363841570;onPublishedMenu=allposts;onClosedMenu=allposts;postNum=3;src=postname

This is the first chance I get to test my predictions (bearing in mind this was back in March, and UKIPs support may even be higher now. This is the fun bit of politics.

My slightly adjusted predictions for the South Shields by-election;-

PREDICTION 12/3/2013	Conservative	Labour	LibDem	Independent	UKIP	Green	BNP
South Shields	12%	47%	7.8%	3.6%	17.8%	5.3%	6.5%

Dream result: Liberal Democrat of course, but if a guy dressed as a monkey won, I can't help thinking Mr Monkey would be an improvement on Mr Miliband...