Bar owner hits out at mammoth rates demand
Register for free to read more of the latest local news. It's easy and will only take a moment.
A WHOPPING £14,000 business rates bill has splintered relations between Highland Council and the city centre’s crowdfunding king Bruce MacGregor.
Battle lines have been drawn over the hefty sum being pursued by the local authority.
However the fed-up businessman, who generated £150,000 through crowdfunding to open MacGregor’s Bar in Academy Street – and then ploughed £200,000 of his own money into renovations – believes a Scottish Government scheme called Fresh Start gives him a year’s exemption.
And he is accusing the council – who administers the scheme – of trying to pull a fast one "because they need every penny they can get their hands on now".
The situation arose this week when Mr MacGregor got a business rates bill for £13,980 for 2017/18.
He contested the demand, saying his bar complied with the rules of a special scheme waiving rates for the first year of any new firm’s operation.
However, the council has said Mr MacGregor was not eligible because he does not comply with all the criteria.
Included is a stipulation that the premises must have been empty for a continuous period of at least six months immediately prior to occupation.
The council said that he flouted this rule by opening his bar on two dates – in order to boost the crowdfunding appeal – ahead of his official November 2017 opening.
Officials said occupation was "deemed rateable" and he was liable for the full year’s business rates, despite using the premises for just two out of 365 days of the year.
Mr MacGregor said: "I was just showing the shell of the building and what we could do with it. We had no toilets on site, there was a portable toilet outside. Candles gave the light, there was a temporary electricity supply put in and the alcohol licence wasn’t even supplied by MacGregor’s Bars.
"Fresh Start rates relief is a good-intentioned piece of legislation that the council seems to be trying to wangle their way out of because they need every penny they can get their hands on now.
"It makes you wonder why we even bother trying to do things in this city."
A business can appeal to the council if it thinks the collection of the rates has been "incorrectly calculated or applied".
A council spokeswoman said the authority carried out the billing and collection as an agent of the Scottish Government.
A government spokeswoman said councils have the "flexibility to create their own local rate relief schemes".
