A TAX INCREASE THAT WE MAY APPROVE OF?

Whilst thinking at length about the economic problems facing Macclesfield and the planned development by Tesco I may have come up with a radical idea for the government to raise taxes which both the general public and local businesses could benefit from.

I`m unsure of how current rating legislation works, so maybe this is already being done. If so please forgive my lack of knowledge, let me know, and I`ll go back to the drawing board.

One of the greatest bones of contention with local residents, visitors and businesses is the cost of parking in town. Conversely, the free car parking at the out-of-town and edge-of-town retail parks is one of the greatest attractions to shoppers

I would assume that the business rates on somewhere like The Trafford Centre or even a supermarket is based on the square footage of the building(s). What if the total area of the site were rated? i.e. include the car park and any other land within the curtilage of the site. This area may be rated at a slightly lower rate than the main buildings, but as part of the overall commercial operation being used for the benefit of that business shouldn`t it be included?

Then a proportion of those extra revenues, from all of the retail parks, supermarkets, etc could be returned to their local authority, to enable them in turn to reduce their local parking charges.

This could even be extended to cover land purchased by large companies as a way of preventing competitors coming into competition with them