Finance Minister Conor Murphy said he intends to provide businesses with a £50 million rates support package in the 2022/23 financial year as well as continuing the Small Business Rate Relief which will benefit thousands of business premises. He also announced he had secured Assembly backing to freeze the regional rate for another year.

Visiting Two Sisters artisan food and craft store and Bumbles Day Care in Belfast, which will benefit from the extension of the rates holiday, Minister Murphy said:“Over recent months I have visited businesses from all sectors across the North. The common message coming from these businesses has been that the rates holiday was a vital lifeline for them during the pandemic.

“As businesses continue to rebuild, I am announcing a further £50 million rates support package to support the recovery. This will provide all businesses with a one month rates holiday with the exception of utilities and larger food stores while retail, hospitality, tourism, leisure, childcare, newspapers and airports will receive a three months rates holiday. Businesses in these hardest hit sectors have paid no rates since March 2020 and will now pay no rates until July 2022.”

Welcoming the Assembly approval on the regional rate freeze, Minister Murphy said: “Recognising the cost of living crisis, I had proposed as part of the draft budget a proposal to freeze both the domestic and non-domestic regional rates for the next three years. This freeze was intended to help with the rising costs being faced by families and businesses alike. While a final budget for the next three years has not been agreed by the Executive, I can proceed with this freeze for the first year. The Assembly backing today will freeze household and business rates for the next 12 months, giving households and businesses certainty in the immediate time ahead.”

The Finance Minister also announced the extension of the Small Business Rate Relief scheme, under which small businesses automatically receive a reduction of between 20% and 50% on their rates. Outlining the importance of this for small businesses, Minister Murphy said: “Small businesses are at the core of our local economy and have a vital role in contributing to employment opportunities. I am glad to announce the continuation of the Small Business Rate Relief scheme which currently supports almost 29,000 business premises. The extension of the scheme sends a strong message of the important contribution of the small business sector.”

The Minister concluded: “While it’s not possible to finalise the 2022-2025 Budget, businesses need certainty and to be able to plan ahead. These vital measures build on the around £1 billion support my department has provided through rates relief and Covid grants and will give businesses time to recover.”

Retail NI Chief Executive Glyn Roberts said: “This is a very welcome package of support for our members and the broader business community. We appreciate that the Minister has listened and acted upon the concerns of our members.”

“Continuing the Rates holiday by another 3 months and extending the Small Business Rate Relief scheme will be well received by small traders particularly given the twin pressures of rising energy costs and the forthcoming National Insurance hike.”

“After the Election it is important that the Assembly and Executive agree a broader reform of the entire system of business rates as they are the highest in the UK.”

“This package is a significant step in the right direction but much more will be needed to support the recovery of our high streets.”

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Addressing MLAs at the Assembly, finance minister Conor Murphy said: “I do intend to proceed to freeze both domestic and non-domestic regional rates next year, which will help with the rising costs faced by families and businesses. Unfortunately, I cannot extend this to the three years as previously intended.

“I will also progress with the £50 million rate relief package to support a rates holiday for businesses. This will provide a three-months rates holiday for retail, tourism, hospitality, leisure, childcare, newspapers and airports which are the sectors hardest hit by the pandemic.”

The NFRN’s Northern Ireland president, Coleraine store owner Joe Archibald, said: “The holiday and freeze on rates is much needed because there is still a lot of recovery to be done following the pandemic.

“There really needs to be a full review of business rates because they are scandalous in some cases, but any help we can get at the moment is to be welcomed.”

Mr Murphy said over £300 million in additional funds earmarked for the next financial year cannot be spent due to the resignation of DUP first minister Paul Givan.

The Finance Minister sought legal advice from the attorney general on whether he could bring the draft budget for 2022 to 2025 to the Assembly despite ministers having not signed off on it.

It proposed a 10 percent increase in health spending, with £21 billion earmarked for services over the next three years.

“Unfortunately, the legal advice is clear that the budget must be agreed by the Executive,” Mr Murphy told MLAs.

“This means that on April 1 the health service will not be able to plan on a three-year basis, nor will it be equipped with additional resources to invest in waiting lists, cancer services and mental health.

“In these circumstances, rather than improving, the health service will decline.”

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The seminar is one of five one-day regional exhibitions, targeted at everybody involved in petrol retailing in the UK and making it easier for suppliers to meet buyers.

Speakers at the Crowne Plaza event will include companies presenting products and services that can improve business.

Members will hear from Edge Petrol, Henderson Technology and Eurotank, the last of which will be discussing robotic inspection of underground storage and tanks.

The event will also provide an opportunity for buyers to learn about current affairs affecting the industry, according to PTA executive director Gordon Balmer.

He says topics will include an update on the status of sites in Northern Ireland, issues with Stormont, the involvement of the Westminster government, an update on the Car Wash Association and the current petrol crisis in GB.

“We’ll be talking about the win we had on business rates – the extra month for forgoing business rates was only going to stores with a square meterage of 300 and that has been raised to 500. So many members would have benefited from that if they had larger-formatted stores,” Mr Balmer says.

But the hottest subject will be the headline-hitting question of fuel shortages across the water, a combination of lorry drive shortages and panic-buying, with the high density areas of London and the South-East hardest hit.

“There is no shortage of product – the issue is in the supply chain, the fact that there weren’t enough drivers to bring the product from the terminal,” Mr Balmer says.

The PTA survey on October 12 revealed that only 3% of fuel stations were now dry – 93% had both diesel and petrol supplies, while the remainder had one or the other, he says.

Measures the government has taken to offset the lack of lorry drivers have included trying to attract lorry drivers back to the UK by relaxing visa requirements and having military personnel ready to drive lorries.

To find out more about the Business Breakout, visit HERE.

The post Petrol crisis on the agenda for Petrol Retailer Association business breakout in Belfast first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.

“We are extremely pleased that following constructive discussions, the Northern Ireland assembly has confirmed that their COVID-19 business rates relief, originally limited to forecourt shops up to 300 m2 of selling space, has now been extended to forecourts with a shop area up to 500 m2”, said Brian Madderson, Chairman of the Petrol Retailers Association (PRA).

Originally, the larger food stores would have benefited from only four months of rates relief, but the PRA argued with the Northern Ireland Land & Property Services (L&PS) that the cut-off should be set at 500 m2 and Conor Murphy, Finance Minister, finally approved the recommendation.

‘Ill thought out’

The PRA claimed the initial proposal was ‘ill-thought-out’ as it would have penalised many, often family owned and run, petrol station operators in stark contrast to the mainland where the Treasury had directed from the outset that the full rates relief be applied to all essential food and convenience stores regardless of size.

Madderson continued, “In Northern Ireland, many forecourt shops offer great food-to-go services and are much larger than in other parts of the UK because they have been playing a key role in serving the community due to the relatively late arrival of national supermarkets.

Business rates relief

“As a result, these large local facilities will now deservedly benefit from this significant extension to business rates relief. We are much encouraged that Land & Property Services took on board our views and revised their initial proposal in a way that will ensure that all forecourt shops are treated fairly”.

The post PRA succeed in getting rates relief extended to more forecourts first appeared on Neighbourhood Retailer.