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Exclusive: A family-run pharmacy facing a 100 per cent rent increase has secured support from Labour and Reform UK councillors as it tries to put pressure on Hillingdon Council not to push ahead with the measure.

Carewell Chemist and a number of other businesses on Mulberry Parade in West Drayton were notified by the council that their rents will rise, leaving the pharmacy facing the prospect of having to leave the area for the first time in 35 years.

Hillingdon Council served Carewell Chemist with a Section 25 notice, which gives a commercial tenant the option of accepting a new lease or ending the tenancy.

Jatish Mistry, a pharmacist at Carewell Chemist, told Independent Community Pharmacist the rent increase will force the pharmacy, which he described as being “in a very deprived area”, to relocate, making it tougher for “thousands of people” who rely on it to get their medicines, including many elderly people.  

Although there are six other pharmacies in West Drayton, Mistry insisted it would be much more difficult for vulnerable people to access healthcare “without having to travel by public transport or car”.

He said Hillingdon Council’s rent increase was “highly inflated” and “inaccurate” and accused it of basing its figure, which he did not want to confirm, solely on market value and failing to consider the area’s “demographics, people’s disposable incomes, how many people are on benefits and who can’t afford even basic medicines”.

Mistry also said Hillingdon Council’s rent demand will “heavily” impact the pharmacy’s cashflow and could force him to cut staff. He claimed the council refused to meet with the pharmacy when approached to discuss a way forward.

“There’s no suggestion they are willing to help,” Mistry said. “No-one has stepped in to help from the senior level of the council even though we have notified them.

“If they really wanted to step in and help us as small businesses, and to keep in line with Labour’s new plan under Andy Burnham for reviving small businesses and having access to local healthcare, they really should be doing more to save us.

“We have attempted to reason with the council, writing to them and copying in the leader of the council and the executive and I had no response from any of them.”

Hillingdon Council: No eviction notice has been served on the pharmacy

Hillingdon Council told ICP it wants “Mulberry Parade and the businesses based there to thrive” and promised to “work constructively with tenants” and insisted no eviction notice has been served on the pharmacy.

It added: “The council has a responsibility to Hillingdon taxpayers to manage its commercial properties properly and achieve best value.”

Hillingdon Council also said rents at Mulberry Parade “have been below market value for a number of years and, where reviews or renewals are due, rents are being assessed against market evidence and in accordance with the leases agreed by tenants”.

In response, Mistry said: “They have a whole department dealing with this. They have surveyors, they have case officers. Every time a rent review was due, it was done much later or much too late because they couldn’t get their house in order.

“If they’re trying to say their valuations were wrong, that’s on them. We go by what evidence they use at the time when presenting us with a new lease or giving us a rent review. That’s nothing to do with us, that’s their own mess they need to clean up. It’s not fair for us to pay for their mistakes.”

If a Section 25 notice is not intimidating, what is?

When told about Hillingdon Council’s rejection of “any suggestion that tenants are being treated rudely, unfairly or intimidated”, Mistry said: “If a Section 25 notice is not intimidating, then what is? They’re giving you six months to negotiate with them to basically comply with their unfair demands otherwise they could essentially end your lease.

“The most comparable evidence we have is completed leases on this parade from last year and the council is dismissing that as evidence. And it’s much lower than what they are quoting now. They are comparing us to other parades which are maybe in more affluent areas or have higher footfall. It’s just not comparable.”

Hillingdon Council said: “Asking a tenant to comply with the terms of their lease, or raising a breach where one has occurred, is a normal and necessary part of responsible property management. It would be wrong for the council simply to ignore contractual obligations because enforcing them may be unwelcome.”

Reform UK councillor gathering evidence for pharmacy

In an attempt to force the issue, Mistry said he met Reform UK councillor for West Drayton Paul Capps, who has taken up the case and appointed a surveyor to gather evidence to present to the council on behalf of the pharmacy and other businesses on Mulberry Parade.

“Paul and his team are gathering information from all of us and we will all have independent surveys done, each business. Then, we can see what the surveyor is suggesting in terms of what their value should be and we can then present that.

“If he says ‘this is fair, this is what you should be paying’, then fair enough. But we already appointed a surveyor a few months ago and even they suggested to the council that the rent increase is higher than what we feel it should be.”

Mistry said another West Drayton councillor, Labour’s Jan Sweeting, is also supporting the pharmacy and has written to the council “on the grounds of pharmacy needs assessment and local area requirements for healthcare because we are in a heavily deprived area”.

Labour councillor takes an interest

Mistry said Sweeting has made the Labour MP for Hayes and Harlington and former shadow chancellor John McDonnell aware of the situation.

“I’m wating to hear more from Sweeting but on the rent side, hopefully we’ve got some help from the Reform councillor,” Mistry said, revealing that Michael Levitan, the chief executive of the Middlesex Pharmaceutical Group of LPCs, has been informed about Carewell Chemist’s situation.

“Middlesex LPC is trying to provide advice for us and Michael has highlighted (to Sweeting) the impact of us not being here anymore,” Mistry said.

“For us to leave this area, it would be a massive, massive loss to the local community. They rely on us. They can’t get access to GP appointments easily. We’re their first port of call, with Pharmacy First and all these other services.”

Deadline approaching – council could terminate our lease

The Section 25 notice expires on September 21 and Mistry said if no agreement is reached by then, he is concerned the council could terminate the pharmacy’s lease.

He said Hillingdon Council continues to refuse his requests to meet to discuss the matter. “It’s highly unlikely we are going to reach an agreement by September 21,” he added.

Mistry said if the Reform UK and Labour routes fail to bring about a resolution, the pharmacy may consider legal action against Hillingdon Council, although he hopes assistance from the two councillors and the surveyor will give the pharmacy “a better case and more evidence” to present to the council.

“Hopefully, it will give us more comparable rents, more comparable evidence,” Mistry said. “You have to factor everything in, not just what you believe rents should be.”

Hillingdon Council said it had “no intention to force successful businesses out of Mulberry Parade”.

“We recognise the pressures businesses face and have made concessions to tenants over the years, but we cannot indefinitely subsidise commercial businesses through below-market rents at the expense of our residents,” it said.

“We will continue to engage with each tenant, but any agreement must be fair, reflect the market and protect the interests of Hillingdon taxpayers.”

Mistry added: “I’m sure the council doesn’t want to go as far as legal action because it’s not in their best interests. Do they need the unnecessary expense?

“For us, paying for court action would probably have to come out of life savings at this point, just to keep the pharmacy going. But that’s something I don’t even want to contemplate.”