Northern Ireland companies could shed 30,000 jobs if British government plans to make them pay rates are implemented, an industrial lobby group claimed today.
The Northern Ireland Manufacturing Focus Group (NIMFG) announced plans to stage a rally against the phasing out of industrial de-rating in Belfast's Waterfront Hall on April 25th. The group claimed it would bus in 1,000 people to register their opposition.
Group spokesperson Basil McCrea claimed: "We believe this is the biggest crisis to hit the industrial sector in Northern Ireland in the last decade.
"Our estimates show that 30,000 jobs are at risk and it is going to wipe out all the gains that have been made over the last ten years."
Northern Ireland businesses had been exempt from paying rates until last year, when manufacturers received bills asking them to pay 15 per cent of their full rate liability. That is set to rise next month to a quarter of the full rates bill for their property.
However, the NIMFG argued that if plans to make them pay the full rates bill are introduced, it will significantly eat into profits and affect companies' investment in their workforce and research and development.