Empty building tax means job cuts at roof firm (From The Northern Echo)

Empty building tax means job cuts at roof firm

2:44pm Friday 15th August 2008 in Search

A NEW tax has been blamed for potentially costing 26 workers their jobs.

Brian Watson, commercial director at the CA Group in Evenwood, near Bishop Auckland, said the company was in consultations about potential redundancies in its roofing division.

Mr Watson said the proposed redundancies were "absolutely related to" the Empty Property Relief aspect of business rates, which were introduced in April and force businesses to pay rates on empty buildings, even if they have just been completed.

He said developers had stopped building "speculative"

premises, which CA Group would be contracted to provide roofing for, because they had to pay the taxes on them as soon as they were completed.

It comes just days after Sedgefield MP Phil Wilson said he was writing to the Treasury asking it to reconsider the new tax rules after a developer said it would never have gone ahead with a second business project in his constituency had it known the effect the new rates would have.

Mr Watson said: "With the downturn in the construction industry and the way it is at the moment, and the forecast of the next 18 to 24 months, we decided we had no choice.

"Upto 26 people out of 240 working here could be made redundant."