Thousands of businesses across England and Wales were taken to magistrates courts last year for non-payment of their business rates.

The rates advisory firm CVS asked every local authority how many companies had been issued with a summons for the last financial year.
It found that nearly 200,000 businesses had been summoned to court. That amounted to one in every eight businesses on average, with an even higher proportion in London. The research also found that nearly half of firms issued with a summons went on to be referred to bailiffs for enforcement proceedings. Middlesbrough borough council topped the list of authorities which issued the most summonses, with 25% of its businesses receiving a request to appear before the courts. It was followed by the London borough of Waltham Forest with 22%. Dartford borough council, Manchester city council, along with Ealing and Haringey councils in London, sued 21% of the their local businesses for non-payment. The survey suggests that in London a total of 39,098 businesses were told to appear before the courts for non-payment of rates, a figure which represents 16% of all businesses in the capital......Read more here