One Massive Problem that has Small Businesses in a Chokehold

Yesterday, on our first day back in the bakery this year, I spent a large part of the morning manically boiling kettles of water, walking them to the end of the street and back round to the rear of our shop, and pouring them over the frozen waste pipe at the back of our building. While waiting for each kettle-full to boil I would stare at the backed up toilet that was threatening to pour its disgusting contents all over the floor of our downstairs bathroom - a floor that I paid hundreds to replace when we first moved in, as it was rotten.

The guilty waste-pipe. It's far far too small for purpose and needs replacing but...

While acting as a wannabe plumber in subzero temperatures, I was trying to contact our landlord. According to the terms of our lease as far as I understand them, as the pipe is both connected to his two domestic flats above our shop, and external, this would fall under his responsibility.

However, that's about the only thing that does.

(And he still initially refused to do anything about it. And in the end I fixed it.)

Many people don't know this, but the strict laws that apply to domestic landlords, demanding they make properties habitable, safe and comfortable, do not apply to commercial leases.

Obviously each lease is individual and you get some landlords who are particularly benevolent, but the law demands very little of commercial property owners. A standard FRI lease will put all the responsibility on the tenant for nearly every aspect of the upkeep of the property.

So, when we moved into the shop, it was an absolute state. The walls had no plaster on - just plaster board with lining paper stuck over the top. The electrics involved two cut live wires at 10mil and 5mil just hanging over our heads at the bottom of the stairs. The downstairs toilet was rotten. Rats were in and out of the property. And this is a Grade II listed property which is part of one of the most historic High Streets in the country!

Mid-renovations at 14 Cavendish Street

I negotiated as much as I could, but there was no leeway. It was like finding a needle in a haystack to find a suitably located, affordable commercial property for the bakery, so I was over a barrel. The landlord decreased our rent free period from 3 to 1 month during negotiations and there was nothing I could do about it.

In total, we've sunk around £25,000 into a property that we don't own.

But that's not the best bit...

Around £7,000 of that is from public money - from your taxes. Because we successfully applied for the Town Fund Grant, set up under the Conservative Government - a scheme designed to invest money into deprived areas and their buildings to stimulate growth and job creation and give small businesses a hand up in order to do this.

This scheme sounds fantastic, until you realise that a huge proportion of the millions of pounds that went into it have gone directly into the pockets of private landlords. Essentially their buildings have been renovated and made better by public money,

I once broached this in a meeting with a well-known local estate agent and he said it will never change. I agree it's very unlikely to change - when do turkeys ever vote for Christmas - but never say never. I wouldn't be me if I didn't want to fight for it.

The prices that SMEs pay purely to inhabit a safe building that won't make their employees ill are immoral. Especially when you consider the wealth of many of the people who own these places. Not to mention our national responsibility to safeguard our history and upkeep old buildings that can never be replaced and deserve better.

There are many things the Government could do to stimulate SME growth more - and this one is fundamental.

Bring commercial legislation more in line with domestic legislation and hold property owners to account.

So if this resonates with you and you agree, please give it a like, a comment and a share. We can't change what we don't know about. And thank you, as always, for reading.