Taxpayers Slam West Ham's Business Rates Deal For London Stadium

Taxpayers criticized a "ridiculous" deal which means EPL side West Ham United will pay "just a fraction" of the £2.3M ($3M) annual business rates bill on its London Stadium home, according to Greg Wilford of the London INDEPENDENT. Owner E20 Stadium revealed the club will "only pay additional rates on the retail and office space in the 66,000-capacity ground" after it secured the lease for just £2.5M ($3.3M) a year in rent last year. Costs for the rest of the arena will have to be covered by E20, a joint venture between publicly-funded London Legacy Development Corp. and Newham Council. They declined to reveal how much West Ham would contribute in business rates and "claimed the terms are still under discussion." But rent specialist CVS said that the fee is "likely to be far less" than the £1.3M annual rates bill for West Ham's former home at the Boleyn Ground. The TaxPayers' Alliance said that the "deal of the century now looks even worse for taxpayers" (INDEPENDENT, 5/21).