WITH respect, Councillor Andrew Pope could be losing his rational sense of political direction.
His call for the impoverished Southampton City Council to give Southampton General Hospital a discount on the hospital’s annual business rate ranks high on the list of things not to do.
National government has starved councils around the country of cash and now he is suggesting our city council should be subsidising the financially broken NHS. We desperately need a cash injection to see Southampton council through to 2020.
The city council is already having to give small businesses tax relief and should the rateable value of the business be under £6,000, during 2016/2017 and I assume also for 2017/2018, no rates are liable.
Why did Cllr Pope need to approach the chief financial officer for a comparison of NHS and private hospitals’ business rates?
The rule for charitable trusts means any private outfit that has a charitable status reaps an 80 per cent discount on their rates. Private hospitals in the main are run as charities.
Any hospital run as a profit making company would have to pay the full business rate.
Inside Southampton General Hospital there will be an increased presence of private services, support services and medical services profiting from the use of the buildings. It is a grey area whether a public funded hospital with private enterprise lurking within, should get a business rate discount.
The sensible solution is that national government start funding hospitals properly so they can afford to pay councils for the services they use.
Joe Cox, Southampton.
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