Steve Double, Member of Parliament for St Austell and Newquay, has welcomed the announcement in today’s Budget by Chancellor Phillip Hammond that operators of public toilets will be exempted from having to pay business rates in the future.
Commenting, Steve said:
“This is something I have been campaigning on for six years, since before I was a Member of Parliament and was the Cabinet Member responsible for toilets at Cornwall Council. Along with the other Cornish MPs I met the then-Prime Minister in St Austell just after my election in 2015 to press for this sensible and much-needed change and I was pleased to see the Chancellor recognise both my own and Scott Mann’s efforts on this matter.”
“It is simply not right that local organisations, often already hard-pressed Parish Councils, have had to pay business rates on the public toilets they run. Public toilets that have often been devolved to them by Cornwall Council under the threat of closure.”
“With tourism such a major part of our economy in Cornwall it is only right that we help the operators of these vital facilities and do whatever we can to keep them open.”
“I am pleased to see that after our campaigning the Government has now taken the plunge and a solution is in the pipeline.”
“I look forward to seeing these changes being implemented as soon as possible and will continue to do all I can to champion the cause of our local communities and the hard work put in by volunteers in running their local loos.”