Our blog on March 1 explained how the majority of businesses in the city centre and wider BID area will pay no business rates for the new financial year starting next week.
The council will provide a 25% discount for BID area businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors - including the likes of shops, cafes, restaurants, pubs, gyms, live music venues, hairdressers, theatres and opticians - on top of the 75% business rates relief already offered by the Welsh Government to all businesses in these sectors across Wales.
We have now received details of how the scheme would operate.
Links to apply for both discounts can be found here
Please read the information below before applying.
Welsh Government 75% discount
The Welsh Government will provide grant funding to all 22 local authorities in Wales to provide the Retail, Leisure and Hospitality Rates Relief scheme to eligible businesses for 2023-24.
The scheme aims to provide support for eligible occupied properties by offering a discount of 75% on non-domestic rates bills for such properties.
The scheme will apply to all eligible businesses, however the relief will be subject to a cap in the amount each business can claim across Wales. The total amount of relief available is £110,000 across all properties occupied by the same business.
All businesses are required to make a declaration that the amount of relief they are seeking across Wales does not exceed this cap, when applying to individual local authorities.
Welsh Government guidance on this scheme can be found here
Newport City Council 25% discount
This is a local scheme, funded by Newport City Council, to reduce rates in the city centre to assist existing city centre businesses and encourage greater levels of occupancy.
The scheme aims to provide support for eligible occupied properties by offering a discount of 25% on non-domestic rates bills for such properties.
The following criteria will be used to assess eligibility for the Newport City Centre Rate Relief Scheme.
For existing businesses:
The ratepayer must be occupying a property shown in the non-domestic rating list.
The property must be located within the Newport city centre BID area.
The property must have a rateable value of £50,000 or less
The ratepayer must have the necessary permissions to carry out the business.
The property must not be occupied by a charity or similar organisation that receives either mandatory or discretionary rate relief.
The business being run from the property must be in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors as defined by the Welsh Government Retail, Leisure and Hospitality rate relief scheme 2023-24.
The business must not have received more than £300k in state aid since January 2021 and is eligible to claim this relief under the Small Amounts of Assistance rules.
For businesses occupying previously empty premises, all the conditions as above plus:
The ratepayer must own or have signed a commercial lease with a minimum of 12 months to run.
There must be evidence that the business is trading, and rent is being paid.
The premises must have been unoccupied at the start of the lease.
No relief will be awarded until the property is occupied and trading.
In the case of a business moving from one premises to another within the city centre, relief will be paid on the new premises only if the property is larger and more staff are being employed.
In the case of a new business, a detailed business plan must be supplied.
The property being used is not excessively large for the business that is being carried out.
In all cases the council will reserve the right to decline to pay any applications that it considers have been created to take advantage of scheme.
The rate relief will end when one of the following occurs:
The business ceases to trade.
The property becomes unoccupied.
Action is taken by a statutory body that prevents the business from operating.
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