Council gets Slough business growth money
Slough Borough Council has received more than £933,000 of business growth funding after winning a High Court battle with the Government.
The council believed it had been denied more than £800,000 in business growth money following new businesses locating in the town in 2005.
Slough council took the case to the High Court following the construction of two new businesses in Slough – Tesco Extra on Wellington St, and the Royal Mail sorting office in Colnbrook.
The council collected extra business rates for these businesses and handed them to the government.
Under the Local Area Business Growth Incentive Scheme (LABGI), which was introduced in 2005/6, the council was due to receive a percentage of the extra business rates collected because it had encouraged business growth in the town.
However, Slough council was denied this money as the government concluded that both new businesses were merely an extension of an existing building.
This was despite the fact that Tesco had demolished its old store and re-built the ninth largest Tesco in Europe (including nine small shops inside), and the Royal Mail sorting office being a brand new building on a new site.
Both Tesco and Royal Mail generated additional and substantial amounts of business tax which went straight to the government, with no benefits for Slough.
The High Court judgement which was published on July 31 ordered the funds to be paid to Slough, and said the Department for Communities and Local Government’s (DCLG) case was ‘hopeless’.
Cllr Richard Stokes, leader of Slough Borough Council, said: “We are delighted that we have received more than we expected. This is money that Slough’s residents and businesses should have benefited from and were denied.
“With the old Tesco, we collected £2million in business rates which went straight to the Government. The new store and its nine shops generated £3.9million in business tax (almost double) which again went straight to the government, denying Slough of the business growth money it deserved and rightfully should have had.”
Slough Borough Council