There’s nothing quite like a threat to survival for getting people to work together in a common cause – and perhaps no better example of this than what’s been going on in ports around England and Wales since the middle of 2008.

Facing unexpected and often ruinous demands for business rates which in some cases were many multiples of their annual turnover, controversially backdated to 2005, stevedoring companies, ship agents, ferry operators, timber terminal operators, warehouse companies and many others got together to fight for their future.

Now, after a determined campaign lasting two years, there appears to be cause for celebration, after the new Coalition Government announced the freezing of backdated rates bills that were threatening thousands of jobs, and a full inquiry into the situation. Sadly, some companies have already gone to the wall, as local authorities in some areas issued final demands and even court summonses. Others have clung on by a thread, technically insolvent, as councils held back from enforcing the bills, conscious that a change of government could bring a change of policy.

The crisis began when the Valuation Office Agency was charged with a revaluation exercise which would see port companies paying their business rates separately, instead of the traditional system of paying a contribution through the commercial agreements they held with their landlords, the port owners.

The new system should have been in place from April 2005. However, the VOA took so long to carry out the valuation that bills didn’t start arriving until summer 2008. It also failed to organise any consultation, so the 600 or so companies involved had no warning of what was to come. They could hardly have expected to be liable for bills going back three years, when their own accounts had long been finalised and, as far as they were concerned, they had been paying rates through the normal route all that time. And on top of that, the VOA made many wrong valuations along the way. Yet another example of the private sector being expected to pay for the inefficiencies of government agencies.

Here in the Haven Gateway we have had our fair share of companies affected by this crisis. At Harwich, for example, Stena Line received a £1.8m rates bill in 2008 for its HSS fast ferry berth at Harwich, 21 months after the catamaran was withdrawn from service! The bill was then reduced to take this into account but Stena still faced a backdated demand for the period between April 2005 and January 2007.

Our recent economic impact study demonstrates the importance of the Haven Gateway’s ports and logistics sector for the economy of our sub-region and for jobs, with the sector accounting for more than one job in every ten; it is essential that we maintain the competitiveness of the sector.

I have written to the new Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, Eric Pickles, urging fast action on the cancellation of the backdated rates, to give companies the certainty they need to plan ahead.

Let’s hope that this much hoped-for decision signals a government that offers more support and understanding for our country’s vital ports and wider maritime sector.

In the same context, I will also be in touch with the new Shipping Minister, Mike Penning MP, on some other ‘unfinished business’ – the unacceptable increases in Light Dues, the charges that ships using UK ports pay towards the running of the three lighthouse authorities in the UK and Ireland, the unfair subsidy for shipping entering Irish ports, which hits the Haven Ports disproportionately.

Some 20% of all these Light Dues are collected from ships calling at Felixstowe, clearly demonstrating the unfairness of this outdated system. Another campaign we must win!