Further Budget Updates
Following the announcements in the budget the headline relief stated by the Chancellor for retail was 3 months rates free, followed by 9 months with 2/3rds relief, with a cap of £2m per business. After the event, the fine detail is published, and it is now clear that a lower cap of £105k per business applies if the properties were not required to close by law – in other words, the £2m cap only applies to non-essential retail whereas petrol station groups, being essential retail, will be at the lower £105k cap per business (not per property!).
In terms of defining “business”, the Government have issued the following advice to Councils; Where a ratepayer has a qualifying connection with another ratepayer then those ratepayers should be considered as one ratepayer for the purposes of the cash caps. A ratepayer shall be treated as having a qualifying connection with another:
a. where both ratepayers are companies, and
i. one is a subsidiary of the other, or
ii. both are subsidiaries of the same company; or
b. where only one ratepayer is a company, the other ratepayer (the “second ratepayer”) has such an interest in that company as would, if the second ratepayer were a company, result in its being the holding company of the other.
The above applies to England only.
Wales has now followed Scotland and has given 100% relief for the whole of 2021/22