Business rates: ‘I pay ten times more than Marks & Spencer’

Ms Binks and Ms Lochery both receive a reduction on their rates, which is available to retail and hospitality businesses.

But it is not available to Kerry Ferguson, director of a website design firm, which is a professional services company.

Her business rates are £750 a month – with her base rate being slightly lower due to her premises not being on the high street – which she felt was “quite high”.

“We knew about them when we took on the office. But I do often think, how I could invest that money into the business, going towards paying for an extra member of staff, and that would build into the local economy here,” she said.

Maldwyn Pryse, mayor of Aberystwyth, compared the base business rates in the town to other places in Wales and found the value of Zone A rates for retail properties in the middle of Aberystwyth was £525 per square metre, compared with £460 on St Mary Street, Cardiff, and £180 on the Kingsway in Swansea.

Mr Pryse said: “There’s obvious unfairness here. When we look at the figures, when we compare the population size, when we compare the footfall, there’s something inherently wrong in the way it’s calculated. We need to get to the bottom of what’s wrong, because it is penalising our businesses.”

He called for a meeting with the chief executive of the VOA, adding “complete transparency” was needed.