A LEADING hotelier is battling “an absolute scandal” which has seen his business rates rocket overnight.

Paul Milsom was shocked when the rates on four hotels and restaurants he owns in Dedham and Harwich went up 55 per cent.

He has successfully won a tribunal to have rates reassessed at the Pier on Harwich quayside.

Now Mr Milsom, who employs a total of 400 people during the summer, is waiting to learn if his Dedham businesses will have rates revalued by the Government.

Mr Milsom said: “I just looked at the new rates they were asking us to pay and thought this cannot be correct.”Bearing in mind we have been trading in a similar way for many years our combined rates for the Milsom Hotels group went up by 55 per cent.

“I could not believe it. To have one of your biggest costs go up overnight by 55 per cent is a real shock.”

It meant Milsom Hotels’ group rateable value had risen by a staggering £250,000. The company discovered rates it had paid for the Pier had changed back in 2010.

It had been reclassified as a licensed property instead of a hotel which gave a higher rateable value.

Mr Milsom said: “We appealed on the basis the Pier is a hotel and not a pub. Fortunately the tribunal found in our favour.”

But Mr Milsom was only able to claim money back to 2015, totalling £28,000, as it was a late appeal.

He still needs to go through the appeals process to reduce its current bill which has a rateable value of £160,000, double the old amount.

He said: “The fact we won at a tribunal doesn’t automatically mean our rates going forward will be dealt with in the same manner, which has to be crazy. Does this mean the Pier is now a pub again?

“There is no-one at the rates office able to take a decision and enable us all to move on.”

Mr Milsom is still left with uncertainty over the rates of his Dedham premises, Maison Talbooth, Le Talbooth and Milsoms.

Rates at Le Talbooth, for example, rocketed from £150,000 to £200,000.

Mr Milsom hit out at the system which involves rates being paid by businesses on the first day of the month before they’ve paid other outgoings.

He said: “We are having to find £10,000 a month more than we were from April 1 2017, on the first day of the month, across our businesses in Dedham and Harwich.

“It has been a major shock to the business and incredibly disheartening.

“Operating a business that’s been going for 60 years, we have been able to find the money to pay this every month but other businesses haven’t and that’s why they close their doors.”