More Trickery from Labour in Sandwell!

The Skidder has recently been pilloried for making Freedom of Information Act requests to Sandwell Council but if you read on you will see why they are so very necessary. Judge for yourselves.

Back in 2009, Unite sold Terry Duffy House, an office block in West Bromwich and constituency office for MP's Watson and Bailey (Who he? Ed), to Labour Party Properties Limited - proprietors, The Labour Party. As Sandwell Council have been told not to communicate with me, I was forced to make a Freedom of Information Request to establish whether the comrades had been paying business rates to their, er, comrades at SMBC. Here is the exact wording of my request dated as long ago as 6th March, 2014:

"On 23rd December, 2009 Labour Party Properties Limited purchased
Terry Duffy House, West Bromwich. Please confirm whether SMBC have
granted business rate relief in any form in respect of that
property since 23rd December, 2009. If yes, please provide the
relevant details."

I received the following absolutely unequivocal response:

"Further to your request I can confirm that no rate reliefs have been
awarded to Terry Duffy House."

On that basis I assumed Labour were paying business rates but I then received information which suggested the contrary. Accordingly, I made a further request as follows:

"I am returning to my original request in respect of business rate
relief for Terry Duffy House and the categorical reply of 2nd
April, 2014 from Julie Richards (Supervisor Revenues & Benefits
Service) that Labour Party Properties Limited have not benefited
from any business rate relief in respect of that property.

It has been drawn to my attention that in two separate FoI requests
SMBC have included the "basement, ground and first floors" of Terry
Duffy House (ref R2478809990207) in lists of "empty" commercial
properties over £45,000 and £50,000 since 2009. Am I to assume that
despite being "empty" and on these lists, Labour Party Property
Limited nevertheless paid full business rates throughout this
period?"

And today, nearly six months after my original request I get the following response (the strange accent signs are as per the SMBC original):

"Bst Ground And, 1st Floor, Terry Duffy House, West Bromwich

In reply to your original Freedom of Information Request when you asked us
for information on business rates reliefs I can confirm the information
given in the original response, that there were no business rate reliefs
on the property known as Bst Ground And, 1st Floor, Terry Duffy House,
West Bromwich.

In respect of your subsequent enquiry I can confirm that this property was
empty between 24^th December 2009 and 11^th April 2011. During this time a
three month unoccupied property exemption was applied for the period 24^th
December 2009 to 23^rd March 2010. Following this, a full empty rate
charge applied for the remainder of the void period, 24^th March 2010 to
11^th April 2011.

2^nd Floor, Terry Duffy House, West Bromwich.

In reply to your original Freedom of Information Request when you asked us
for information on business rates reliefs I can confirm the information
given in the original response, that there were no business rate reliefs
on the property known as 2^nd Floor, Terry Duffy House, West Bromwich.

In respect of your subsequent enquiry I can confirm that this property was
empty between 24^th December 2009 and 11^th April 2011. During this time a
three month unoccupied property exemption was applied for the period 24^th
December 2009 to 23^rd March 2010. Following this, a full empty rate
charge applied for the remainder of the void period, 24^th March 2010 to
11^th April 2011. subsequent enquiry I can confirm that this property was
empty from 2nd April 2010 to date. During this time a three month
unoccupied property exemption was applied for the period 2nd April 2010
and 1^st July 2010. Following this, a full empty rate charge applied for
the remainder of the void period, 2^nd July 2010 to date.

To clarify, neither of the properties were entitled to receive any type of
relief, both properties did attract an unoccupied property exemption for
the period of time stated above."

You will note that SMBC did not grant business rate relief since the comrades had already claimed exemption for various parts of the building. Labour SMBC are making swingeing cuts but at least their brothers and sisters - in - arms are not divvying up for the greater good of Sandwell!

I have complained to the Information Commissioner about the way my request has been handled. YOU may think SMBC tried to deliberately mislead me as to the true position. I couldn't possibly comment.........

THE SANDWELL SKIDDER - A COMMUNITY BLOG

e   thesandwellskidder.blogspot.com                        t   @bcrover (Vernon Grant)

Confidential phone no: 07599 983737