IF I were not the leader of Poole council I would agree that councils offering discounts on business rates on empty shops in the High Street would be a great idea to encourage empty retail units to fill up.

But I am the leader of Poole council, and am constantly badgering every minister responsible for local government finance to give Poole a Fair Deal in its funding – as did my predecessors.

Government announced two years ago that they were giving councils control of business rate growth.

The small print however said that every council had to send 50 per cent of new business rate growth back to government.

Then other levies are taken. In Poole we keep only 0.25 pence in every pound of new business rate which means we send to government 0.75 pence in every pound (in Bournemouth these figures are 0.42 pence and 0.58 pence respectively).

Therefore, if we gave 100 per cent business rate rebate, we would still have to pay, from somewhere else, 0.75 pence in every pound of new business rate to government.

This would mean cutting services – where ?

In favour of the government though, last year they announced a £1,000 reduction in business rate to every retail business with business rates below £50.000 and they will do the same in 2015/16. 745 businesses in Poole qualified for this rebate in 2014/15.

On behalf of the council I continue to lobby government for ‘Fair Funding for Poole’ not only on business rate retention but on all funding streams.

CLLR ELAINE ATKINSON, Leader of the council, Borough of Poole