Eight Blackpool pubs close doors with outstanding business rates
Outstanding business rates to the value of £690,000 have been written off by Blackpool Council in a step that has seen several local pub operators dissolved or liquidated.
Blackpool Council’s leader, Simon Blackburn, did however stress that this latest news “in no way indicates a decline in Blackpool’s night-time economy”.
As part of a wider crackdown on unpaid rates, Hey Street nightclub Underbar, which was reported by the Blackpool Gazette to have owed £54,632, was among the companies under the council’s spotlight.
Eight operators liquidated or dissolved
A total of eight operators had their rates written off following failure to pay. These included The Blackpool Strand Ltd – owing £32,022; Happy Days Blackpool Ltd – owing £30,741; Promenade Pubs Ltd – owing £11,560; and Infinity Taverns Ltd – owing £11,409. All were either dissolved or liquidated. The other pub businesses involved were owned by unnamed individuals, many of whom have been made bankrupt according to the Blackpool Gazette’s report.
From next year, Blackpool Council, which wrote off nearly £600,000 of uncollected business rates in January, will retain all money made from business rates.
Blackburn added: “We do not want to write off debt and our specialist team actively pursues debtors using rigorous recovery procedures.
“However, it’s a fact of life for local authorities and businesses that when their debtors go out of business or pass away money simply cannot be collected.
“In comparison to the significant annual amounts that are successfully collected by Blackpool Council, the write offs are comparatively very small; for business rates it averages 0.86%.
“We also continue to explore new avenues of debt recovery.
“In terms of the very small number of pubs and clubs that are on the business rates write-off list, there could be various reasons for this.”
The largest amount written off was the £111,146 owed by the London Accessory Company Ltd. It has also been dissolved.
