Business people in the North are holding a rally in Belfast today to protest against the introduction of industrial 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.

Northern companies could shed 30,000 jobs if British government plans to make them pay rates are implemented, an industrial lobby group claimed today.

The British government was today accused of actively contributing to the destruction of manufacturing industries in Northern Ireland.