TRADERS in Wellington are complaining about a large increase in business rates.

Jilly Sims, of vintage store Jilly Tilly and Boo in High Street, says her rates had gone up, with only a month’s notice, by £150 a month to £175.

Jilly, who has been trading in the town more than four years and for more than two in her current location, said: “Times are quite tough on the High Street and we are going to have to find extra money for what seems very little.

“It’s just another thing – the water goes up, the electricity goes up and each time you have to sell more just to stay afloat. I have spoken to lots of businesses around here and they are all as unhappy as I am.”

The retail parks in Taunton did not impact greatly on shops in Wellington but shoppers there had the chance to go to lots of large shops and pick up what they wanted quite cheaply, she said. Shoppers in Wellington had to pay to park and go to small stores where they may not find what they were looking for.

Jilly added: “We want to draw people to Wellington and say there’s a load of little individual shops here. We don’t want people to turn up and say ‘that shop’s empty, that shop’s empty’ because people can’t afford to pay their rates.”

Shopkeepers were trying to use each other’s shops to keep money in the town‚ she added. Out of £1 spent in a major store only 5p goes back into the community but in a local shop that figure was 50p.

Sally Hooper, at Mad Dog in South Street, Wellington, whose business rates are going up £130 a month, also said the newly introduced Living Wage would have an impact on her business. She said the Living Wage will mean a 50p an hour increase for her three staff, not all of whom are full-time, and for small businesses that employed more people it could be a large burden.

Sally added: “Business isn’t easy for anyone and I reckon with the increase in Business Rates and the Living Wage, I’m probably going to have to find nearly £4,000 extra to cover costs. Businesses will close because they can’t afford it and unemployment will go up.”

It was announced in the recent Budget that Business Rates will be scrapped next April but shopkeepers who have benefited from rates relief over the past two years have just been hit by the sudden hike.