Petition to ban business rates in first year of trading

A salon owner, sick of paying hefty business rates, has launched a petition on the 10 Downing Street website calling for all new businesses to be exempt from non-domestic rates for their first year.Paula Mason, co-owner of Lawrence Paul Hair Salons told HJi: "I set up the petition as a small business owner, concerned over the rates we are paying on our new salon in Bury St Edmonds, Suffolk. "It works out that we pay more than £1,000 per month for our business rates there and that doesn't even include collecting our refuse. I do feel that business should be exempt from paying non-domestic rates for at least the first year of trading in order to give the business time to become established." Want to add your support, sign the no non-domestic rates petition.