We’ve been wondering why 32 New Lane, perhaps more aptly named ‘Little Luxembourg’, has yet to appear on Havant Borough Council’s published record of business rates. A chart of the income received by Havant Borough Council from the 32 New Lane site over the past four years might cause one or two raised eyebrows.
During Pfizer’s occupation, steady payments of around £65,000 per month were received into the council’s coffers, with the last payment of £64,000 received on 1 August 2021. Just four days after the HBC Planning Committee approved Amazon’s planning application on 9 September 2021, the 32 New Lane site was removed from the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) rating list and a refund of £290,000 was returned to Pfizer, indicated by the red line on the first slide, above.
Two years later, the site still doesn’t exist on the council’s list of properties liable for business rates and from the chart above it appears that not a single penny of business rate income has been received from the site by HBC since September 2021, representing a gap in income for Havant Borough Council of almost £1.6M over the past two years, a gap which will continue to grow until the VOA plugs it.
This despite the fact that Kingsbridge Estates, through its shell company Havant Property Investments LLP, owned and maintained the site and buildings for over a year before they began demolition and construction. Since 2 March 2023, Amazon has been operational at the site, albeit only at 40% capacity. That’s another six months during which business rates should have been liable.
So why hasn’t the site been revalued and added back to the rating list? When we raised an FOI request to explore this, the VOA confirmed that “although we hold some information in scope of your request, we are unable to disclose it.” The reason given was that “Section 44(1)(a) of the Freedom of Information Act states we cannot provide the information because another Act prevents disclosure. Section 23(1) of the Commissioners for Revenue and Customs Act (CRCA) 2005 prevents disclosure in this case.”
There was no delay in valuation when the Amazon Poole DBH3 delivery station opened, nor was there when the first of the new style delivery stations at opened in Peterborough, Amazon DPE2, so what’s going on with Amazon DPO1?
It could be that other parts of HMRC are taking an interest in a ‘person’ or a ‘legal entity such as a company or partnership’ involved with the site. We can’t say more since “Section 44 is an absolute exemption which does not require consideration of a public interest test.”
Download the detail
The timeline of business rates, when set alongside the timeline of planning applications, property movements and financial dealings makes interesting reading. To download the chart and expand the detail behind the timeline, click the following image.
Havant Civic Society 