“BHB Secretary-General Tristram Ricketts said today:

“Last night’s agreement of the Fortieth Levy Scheme for 2001/2 sends a powerful message to Government.

“The willingness of Racing to accept a new rate structure, once the £62.9m yield threshold has been reached, should further encourage Government to address the growing offshore threat by reducing taxation, thereby helping to stimulate increases in horserace betting turnover. The fact that Racing and the Betting Industry have been able to conclude an agreement in difficult circumstances without reference to the Home Secretary is a further incentive to Government to take positive action.

“We are pleased to have secured the continuation of the £1.9m dedicated marketing contribution, together with the further £500,000 needed to fund fully the implementation of the National Marketing Strategy next year. The welcome for this extra money is however inevitably tempered by the keen disappointment at not securing guaranteed additional funding for Appearance Money and Prize Money purposes in particular. We must now rely on turnover increases resulting from a duty cut to generate the additional levy needed to cover these key items.
“The course of this year’s discussions has again highlighted the flaws in the current system and served to reaffirm the wisdom of the Government’s decision to abolish the Levy. The parties have explicitly recognised that the one year agreement reached is entirely without prejudice to future commercial discussions between the Racing Industry and bookmakers. These discussions will, as set out in BHB’s Future Funding Plan for British Racing, start in the New Year.”

For further information, contact Tristram Ricketts on 020-7343-3312
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