BUSINESSES in Edmonton have said parts of the high street will close if the council continues with its proposal to increase rents by up to 70 per cent.

At a meeting last month, high-ranking council officers and councillors heard a wave of protests from businesses saying "family businesses will be out of a job” if plans to hike rents go ahead.

A private firm, the Spencer Craig Partnership, manages the borough's entire retail portfolio, and is leading the rent review. As a result, council officers at first said that no allowance could be made for the current recession and that market rates had to be respected.

They also admitted it was “not good timing at all” that some businesses had received letters asking them to remove asbestos from their property at their own cost.

Richard Lauder, head of estates management, said: “If people don’t accept what the rents are, some of which have been agreed with independent agencies, they can go to arbitration.

“I have not been given the authority to change the level of the rent. If there are any discrepancies then there is sometimes provision for grants and assistance, but I can’t reduce the rent on an indiscriminate basis.”

Mahesh Topiwala, proprietor of Giftland, Fore Street, said: “None of us are making a good return. If people go around trying to put up rent by 60 or 70 per cent I can assure you it will drive all these businesses away and they will get taken over as fast food shops.”

Reza Modirroeousta, proprietor of Bolsito, a shoes shop in Fore Street said: “In Chingford, eight or nine shops are available. In Palmers Green there are more, in Finchley too. In Edmonton the reason shops are not yet empty is because the rent is reasonable. There is no way we can afford an increase. We have to recognise there are problems now, and nobody wants to spend money. Everything we buy is more expensive now and people have less money to spend. We are being hit double, and you want to increase the rent!”

Eddie Amos, of Community minicab services, Fore Street, said: “If you increase my rent tomorrow me and about twenty businesses will be out of a job.”

Businesses also raised concerns about loss of trade following the gradual emptying of Highmead in Alpha Road, a 1960s towerblock with 61 flats, and asking why the council had not consulted them before it took this decision.

Several people also added their voice saying security was inadequate and the number of burglaries had increased.

Sue Foster, the council’s Director of Placeshaping said: “If you are saying to me [the security] is not adequate I will take it away and look at it.”

She added: “Would it be sensible to go away and put together a paper on the options available given that we are the landlords, but to see where the flexibility is?”

Labour councillor Andreas Constantinides said: “If you are going to look at what you can do to help that is one thing, but if you are just going to find legal excuses as to why you are going down this road [of rent increases] that is another thing.”

According to Tahsin Ibrahim , Edmonton representative of the Enfield Business and Retailers Association, who chaired the meeting on May 28, the council is the biggest landlord in Angel Edmonton where a lot of family businesses are based.

Mike Lavender, Deputy Leader of the council said: “If a private landlord has a choice between reducing rent and having an empty property he will reduce the rent, and they can get away with not fully complying to the Disability Discrimination Act. The difficulty we have as a public authority is that we have to have a hundred per cent compliance because this is what we get audited on.

“We would be better off if we weren’t the landlord of these properties.”