MK Council has failed to collect more than £1m in business rates from Milton Keynes' giant 'blot on the landscape' warehouse, it has been claimed

The Yeomans Drive building was officially completed in April 2019, but no completion notice was served by MK Council, an investigation by Blakelands Residents Association has revealed.

It is understood the council subsequently served a completion notice last week. However, completion notices cannot be back-dated and the business rates that should have been collected are now lost, say the residents.

To make matters worse, they claim the owners, GUPI 6 Limited, have now been given until January before the rates will be collected.

The warehouse is 18m high and covers 20,522 sq m. Based on its size, residents calculate the business rates should be £1,028,160 a year.

"The loss of collected revenue is substantial and we estimate that it will be in the region of £1.2 to 1.5 million," said a spokesman for the association.

The spokesman added: "The Blakelands Residents Association have carried out a detailed investigation into the Blakelands warehouse over the past few years due to repeated mistakes and failings by Milton Keynes Council.

"Two weeks ago, we discovered that the developer of the warehouse has not been paying any business rates despite the warehouse being completed in April 2019 and proactively marketed ready for occupation at this time. The loss of revenue collected will be well in excess of £1 million based on our estimates.

"It is beyond comprehension how yet another significant failing by Milton Keynes Council has financially benefited this developer. There is a repeated pattern of this happening to the detriment of the residents in Blakelands and Milton Keynes.

"At a time when the Leader of the Council, Councillor Peter Marland, is repeatedly criticising the Government for not providing enough funding to Milton Keynes Council, it is shocking to find that the council has seemingly failed to collect more than £1m in business rates from the developer of the warehouse.

"This matter must now be referred for a full audit and complete investigation. We need to understand how and why this happened, but also whether it is part of a wider systemic problem.”

An external inquiry started in January into how the council made the decision to allow such a large warehouse to be built next to homes. See Citizen story here .

Planning permission was granted in 2018 but afterwards it was discovered an "error" in the process meant a string of conditions were left off the decision.

The conditions were eventually re-instated but residents were left with a warehouse which is close to homes, and about twice as tall as the building it replaced.

And even the conditions set, which include noise and lighting restrictions, are proving controversial, with residents saying they are not being enforced.

The results of the inquiry are due to be published shortly.

The Citizen has questioned Mk Council about the business rates allegation and is awaiting a reply.