Businessman Bob Lucas is facing the prospect of reducing his business to a pile of rubble simply so he can retire after 44 years of work.

Mr Lucas, owner of WS Furniture, Wheeler Street, Maidstone, has warned changes to business rates, brought in by the government in April, mean he is liable for full business rates on his building if he cannot sell or rent it out – whether he is still trading or not.

But after 18 months without any interest from buyers or tenants, Mr Lomax now believes his only option is to knock the building down.

Mr Lucas, bought the 1823 former school building, originally to be used as a warehouse, 15 years ago. He has spent £100,000 carefully restoring it and upgrading the inside for his furniture business.

If he retires without a buyer or tenant, he will have to pay the full rates of £750 a month, whereas before April he would have paid half.

Mr Lucas said: “I just want to lock my door and go home and spend time with my family.

“I have worked so hard, every bone in my body aches. I am not a doom and gloom merchant and I want to be positive, but I just want to pack up. If I had a big property portfolio, £750 wouldn’t be that much to me, but I am talking about an individual with one building that wants to pack up and I am not being allowed to.”

“If I can’t find anyone to rent it quite quickly I will knock it down. It would be a criminal waste to leave a pile of bricks here – this is a lovely old building – but it is like a mill stone around my neck.

“I have done my bit and now I just want to go away gracefully.”

Mr Lucas, 58, started work at 14 in catering and car sales, before moving in to furniture sales in Sittingbourne 16 years ago. He moved the business to Maidstone, starting in Week Street and moving to Brewer Street, and then Wheeler Street selling upmarket furniture.

However, he has found business hard over the last two years and was recently forced to make his one employee redundant, a decision which he still finds hard to talk about.

“He was a proper bloke. I tried to find him something else, but I just couldn’t keep him on. It’s hardly worth me being open at the moment anyway. But I have got to stay open because I can’t afford these business rates.”

The building, which is listed as a garage and stores, has a workshop at the back, inside toilets, a mezzanine floor for storage upstairs and parking at the back.

Mr Lucas added: “I think this place would make a lovely little nursery, it’s so near town. I just hope someone wants it.”

The issue has become a national problem, with other business owners also resorting to knocking down their premises.

Richard Lavender, a director of the Kent Invicta Chamber of Commerce and chairman of the economic development group, said he knew of one business in Canterbury where the owners had removed the roof to avoid paying rates on an empty building.

“This is affecting business moving and expanding, although despite that we do still have companies that are expanding,” he said.

“This is affecting people and they are thinking of it. What we don’t want is lots of little buildings being knocked down simply to avoid paying these rates.”