PR Date: Monday, 16 March 2020 - 3:45pm
North Hertfordshire District Council (NHDC) welcomed the announcement by Government in its Spring Budget to provide additional help to small businesses with their business rates for the next financial year to help with the Coronavirus outbreak.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a £30 billion package to boost the economy and protect businesses and employees throughout the disruption caused by Covid-19.
Amongst the £12 billion of measures specifically aimed at tackling the coronavirus outbreak are an increase in Retail Rate Relief to 100% for all qualifying properties with a rateable value under £51,000. These include retail, sports and leisure facilities.
Additional help has also been announced for pubs and wine bars with a rateable value below £100,00 with the reduction in rates for those premises increasing from £1,000 to £5,000.
The Chancellor also announced that a further £3,000 would be made available to those properties that qualify for Small Business Rate Relief.
The Council will automatically apply the 100% Retail Rate Relief and the additional help to pubs and wine bars to bills being issued in the next few days. Further guidance is expected from the Government on how to apply the additional £3,000 and this will be done as soon as the guidance is received.
The measures mean that most small and medium size businesses in our town centres will pay no business rates at all during the next financial year. Government has also confirmed that Local Authorities will be fully compensated.
The budget also announced that businesses will be given access to a new temporary conorovirus interruption loan scheme.
Cllr Ian Albert, NHDC’s Executive Member for Finance and IT said: "This is great news for our high street businesses. The budget initiatives provide a much-needed safety-net which will help many retailers to keep trading. However, we remain cautious as the coming months pose uncertainty. We are working closely with business owners to see when and where we can provide assistance where it’s needed most.
"We are also pleased that the Government has made additional funding available to support Council's efforts to help vulnerable and low-income households who may face hardship as a consequence of Coronavirus".
Get the latest news by email
You can subscribe to get news and service updates by email. It's free, you can choose which topics you’re interested in and you can unsubscribe at any time.