The York Council has now identified the streets that will benefit from the empty property Rates discount scheme

Empty retail properties brought back into use on Front Street, Green Lane, The Green, Wetherby Road and part of York Road will benefit from a 50% reduction in Business Rates.

The government introduced a scheme which gave Rates discounts on commercial properties that were brought into use after being empty for over 12 months.

The Council has extended that scheme to any retail property that becomes empty.

Concerns have been raised that this will benefit national chains that could pay half the Rates of local independent competitors for as long as 18 months.

As a letter to the local newspaper explained, far from helping independent retailers this could signal their death knell.

Figures released last week show that there are now only a handful of properties currently empty in the Acomb Front Street area.

However, with leases now changing hands regularly as the economy improves, it seems that this well intentioned initiative may be both costly to taxpayers and harmful to many existing traders.