Welsh Liberal Democrat AM for
Montgomeryshire, Mick Bates, has welcomed the announcement that
self-catering businesses will be eligible for small business rate
relief.
They had initially been excluded from the scheme, causing major
financial problems for many tourism businesses in the
constituency.
Mick said: “When the rate relief scheme was brought in earlier
this year, I was inundated with letters, phone calls and emails
from concerned business owners who just didn’t know how they were
going to meet their business rate payments. I welcome this
announcement, and would urge the Government to bring forward an
amendment to the legislation as soon as possible, so that
Council’s can return any payments already made by the affected
businesses.
“There are still concerns around the scheme, however, and I have
called on the Minister to look at the case of some of the
community councils, for example, who for the first time are
finding themselves liable to pay rates on village halls, and
sporting facilities . I have asked the Minister to look at how
local authorities could use hardship relief to help such affected
groups, and hope he will respond positively to my suggestions.”
Notes:
Earlier this year, the long-standing rural rate relief scheme was
replaced with a Wales-wide small business rate relief scheme. This
has led to benefits for some small businesses (for example, those in
Llandrindod Wells which, because of the definitions of population,
were not eligible before) but also meant that slightly larger
businesses in rural areas are having to pay rates for the first
time.
In the initial Order,
self-catering accommodation was not classed as a small business, and
so owners were having to pay rates. Yesterday, the Minister for
Public Delivery announced that this exemption was to be removed; Ms
Williams questioned him on the changes during a Plenary debate. The
transcript of this, and all other Assembly business, can be found at
www.wales.gov.uk.
Ends/diwedd
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