Nottingham City Council takes community centre to court amid £20k rent rise

Management at The Place Activity Centre in Sherwood insist it will close if the city council continues with its rent demands

Nottingham City Council has taken a community centre providing vital services to court as it tries to push its annual rent up from £10 to £20,000. The Place Activity Centre in Sherwood provides vital services including a food exchange and mental health sessions.

Yet those managing the centre say Nottingham City Council's demands for increases to rent and business rates will see the demise of The Place. "If we close, we're gone", says Peter Churchill, the chairman of the centre, who first became involved with The Place when he moved up to Nottingham from Dorset in 2020.

Weeks ago, Mr Churchill says The Place was among a large group of organisations taken to court by the city council over the non-payment of business rates. For The Place, the city council wants business rates of £9,000 a year and this bill was due in April 2024.

Councils taking those who have not paid business rates to court can be granted a liability order, which gives them the power to recover the amount owed using methods including bailiffs. Mr Churchill says the court hearing found in the city council's favour and that the authority has since made an offer of accepting £50 a month payments.

This offer has been branded "bizarre" given that it would entail the amount of business rates owed getting larger and larger every year. "They never fail to surprise me," Mr Churchill says, as he calls on the city council to start proper negotiations.

The 68-year-old community centre chairman said: "We're providing something that is good and they're not going to get the money, because we don't have the money. We as volunteers would prefer to be putting all our energy into the local community rather than this to be honest."

The Place Activity Centre has been used as a venue by community groups, local MPs and neighbourhood watch meetings since it started operating in 1997. The centre has been paying a peppercorn rent of £10 a year to the building's owner, Nottingham City Council, since that time.

Staff at the centre were first informed in 2020 that its rent would be increased to a commercial level of around £12,000, eventually going up to £20,000 within four years. Following years of protest, Mr Churchill says a February 2023 meeting saw the city council agree to keep the peppercorn rent in place and that negotiations would take place on the singing of a new lease with a new rental agreement.

Commitments made at this meeting then appeared to go out the window when the commercial level of rent was demanded again this summer - despite the £10 rate for this year having already been paid. The demands for business rates, which The Place had never paid before, are being made despite the centre having applied for dispensation.

Mr Churchill says The Place should be exempt from business rates given its status as a community asset, rather than a profit-making enterprise, but the city council never responded to their dispensation application. The centre chairman said: "We keep our prices deliberately low so that we are as accessible as possible."

Nottingham City Council has not responded to a request for comment. Speaking previously about The Place, a council spokesperson said: "We work closely with community groups and charities, and understand the positive impact they have across Nottingham.

"Some rent buildings from the council and provide valued services to local people. These have historically been made available on low rents, but this can place a burden on the taxpayer in terms of the council having retained responsibility for repairing the buildings.

"We are starting to move towards occupancy agreements more aligned to market rates when they come up for renewal, and where repairs and insurance responsibility are passed to the occupier." The city council's change of approach to community buildings saw the closure of the Mapperley Community Centre in February - with its previous manager saying the building has been "left to rot" since the council got the keys back.

Warning that the same could happen at The Place, Peter Churchill added: "If we close, we're gone. Things take years to build and you're never going to suddenly get this back. When something dies, it creates a hole and it's very difficult to fill that hole, but that's where they're pushing us."