Hain under pressure to cap NI business rates

Northern Ireland Secretary Peter Hain today faced demands from all the North’s major parties and businessmen to change plans to force companies to pay rates on their properties.

The Northern Ireland Manufacturing Focus Group has received the backing of the Democratic Unionists, Sinn Féin, the nationalist SDLP, the Ulster Unionists and the cross-community Alliance Party in its efforts to persuade the British government to cap rates bills for firms at a quarter of their overall value.