The decision of the Chancellor, George Osborne, to review the business rates will be welcomed by retailers in Weymouth for whom this is one of their biggest costs.

However, the review itself is limited and will not be reporting until 2016 at the earliest.

Whilst the Green Party agree this tax could be designed to help smaller retailers and businesses who rely on premises, as opposed to the internet, for the bulk of their sales, we are also campaigning for most of this tax to be kept in the towns and cities where it is paid.

Rather than going to central government to be spent on projects that may do little to help the towns where it is raised, paying business rates locally would mean the revenue could be directly invested in our town centres, improving the local environment and attracting more customers and business back to our high streets.

Having been closely involved with the Town Centre Masterplan consultation process, organised by Weymouth and Portland Borough Council, there is widespread agreement from all the participants in this process that much could be done to improve our town.

From relatively quick solutions like creating more green, open spaces, to capital intensive projects involving improvements to the Pavilion area and transport links, the one stumbling block is how these projects will be funded.

The obvious answer would be for some capital to come from the business rates. Whilst we believe these rates should vary between large and small companies, we feel sure that all businesses that pay them would feel happier if they could see the direct benefits of this tax on the towns in which they run their businesses.

A review of these rates that does not consider the option of them being paid locally will be a wasted opportunity to make a real difference to our struggling town centres.

Jane Burnet, Green Party Parliamentary candidate, South Dorset