Chinatown traders issue warning over future amid business rates rise

Traders in Chinatown have issued a bleak warning that it may not survive in its current form because of this year’s swingeing increases in business rates.

Restaurateurs and shop owners in Britain’s biggest Chinese district are planning a joint appeal against the Government revaluation of their businesses, which has sent bills spiralling.

They say this could be the final straw for many smaller firms already struggling to cope with higher rents and a sharp rise in the cost of food imported from China following the devaluation of the pound after the Brexit vote.

Christine Yau, who has run award-winning Yming restaurant in Greek Street since 1986, said she had been told her business rates will almost double from £26,000 to £51,000 in April. She said: “I’m thinking of giving up, not putting up with it. It is very troubling. We’re not saying to the Government, ‘Don’t put up rates at all,’ but do it in a way that allows people to survive.

“Everything is going up all the time and of course the business rates do not include rubbish collection any more — I have to pay Westminster council an extra £600 four times a year for that. We need to appeal against the increases to save Chinatown or it will not survive in the form people know and love.”

John Leung, owner of Wan Jun gift shop in Newport Court, said his rates bill was due to rise almost 30 per cent, from £38,000 to £49,000, and could mean he has to close. “On top of my rent of £60,000 I have to find nearly £2,000 a week,” he added. “I cannot trade longer hours than I do already so what can I do?” Restaurateur C T Tang, chairman of the London Chinatown Chinese Association, said business was already tough due to the uncertain economic climate, with Christmas corporate bookings down by half.

Other challenges facing the neighbourhood include visa control making it harder to recruit skilled staff from China, and noisy demonstrations by the Falun Gong sect that are putting off Chinese tourists, the traders claim.

They say there are an unprecedented six vacant premises in Chinatown, and nine betting shops have opened in re-cent years while the number of Chinese bookshops is down from four to one.