A SOUTH Gloucestershire councillor is pressing for the local authority to throw its support behind a campaign to help small businesses in the area.

Cllr Peter Tyzack, councillor for Pilning and Severn Beach, will be asking fellow councillors next week to support the Federation of Small Business' campaign to keep trade and business local.

In a motion to be tabled at the full council meeting of South Gloucestershire Council on Wednesday, January 27, he wants the authority to officially put its support behind small businesses by encouraging people to shop, work and do business locally.

The motion reads: "The council believes local shops and workplaces are an important green objective and support for them will help communities recover faster and stronger from the recession."

Cllr Tyzack also wants the council’s leadership to write to the Business Secretary, Lord Mandelson, asking for a change in the way business rates are handled. At the moment business rates are collected by local authorities but given to central government, which then redistributes the money from the central pool back to local authorities.

Cllr Tyzack said: "It is important that the money paid by South Gloucestershire businesses is used for the benefit of South Gloucestershire businesses."

However, leaders at the council claim they are already doing much to support local businesses.

Last summer the council made an application to the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, John Denham MP, requesting that small business rate relief be made automatic. Small businesses with a rateable value below £15,000 a year are entitled to claim up to half of their business rates back, but it is up to the businesses to make the application.

Cllr John Godwin, executive member for external affairs and partnership development, said: "Small businesses form the backbone of our local economy and employ thousands of our residents.

"Business rates are the third largest cost to small firms, after salaries and rent, but despite the council’s efforts to promote the rate relief that is available, we suspect that many small businesses in the area are still not claiming it.

"We are in the deepest and longest recession in this country’s post war history and many businesses are struggling to keep their heads above water, so we are pleased that our Sustainable Communities Act proposal to make the payment of rate relief automatic is to be put in front of Ministers.

"We also need to look at what other ways the national system of business rates can be used to promote local trade, in addition to local initiatives such as the publication of the 2009 South Gloucestershire business directory and events such as the South Gloucestershire Food and Drink Festival."

The council is still waiting for a decision from Mr Denham.