Jobs at risk!
Thursday, 14 January 2010
JOBS will be lost if Coleraine Borough Council imposes another rates hike as local businesses enter a third year of "unprecedented" trading conditions.
That's the view Coleraine Borough Chamber of Commerce sets out in a letter addressed to each individual councillor, formally handed to the Mayor last Friday.
According to the chamber, firms are already facing serious challenges in 2010 across all sectors of industry and commerce.
“This has meant significant sales' declines, in some cases by as much as 50 per cent. What business that is available is often being tendered for at cost, or very low margins to try and keep some kind of revenue coming through," states the letter.
“Considering that this is now the third year of declining revenues for many Chamber members it would be completely wrong to assume that business can shoulder the burden of an increase in rates again this year. It can't and any increase in rates is likely to be at the expense of further jobs."
The Chamber points out that utility bills and rates have risen at levels significantly above inflation and many businesses are surviving only by aggressively cutting costs.
“This root and branch attack on costs has meant very difficult decisions, including redundancy, pay cuts, pay freezes, capital expenditure freezes, marketing expenditure cuts and pension contributions being stopped altogether.
Last year the Assembly froze regional rates in recognition of the economic challenges.
At a district level, however Coleraine Borough Council increased rates by 5.97 per cent in 2009 and, according to the chamber, the aggregate increase over the last three years has been 17.7 per cent.
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