Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:
To ask Her Majesty's Government what specific support they have identified for small and medium-size enterprises operating in (1) the tourism, (2) the hospitality, and (3) the retail sectors, (a) who are experiencing cash flow problems due to the COVID-19 pandemic, (b) who pay council tax in lieu of business rates, and (c) who have commercial mortgages and are therefore ineligible for payment holidays. [T]
The two existing business grants schemes have helped supported many thousands of small businesses.
To ensure that Local Authorities can help these businesses, the Government has allocated additional up to £617 million funding to Local Authorities in England to allow them to provide discretionary grants.
It is our intention that the following businesses should be considered as a priority for these funds:
· Businesses in a range of shared workspaces;
· Regular market traders who do not have their own business rates assessment;
· B&Bs which pay Council Tax instead of business rates; and
· Charity properties in receipt of charitable business rates relief which would otherwise have been eligible for Small Business Rates Relief or Rural Rate Relief.