5. Statement by the Minister for Housing and Local Government: Coronavirus (COVID-19)

Part of the debate – in the Senedd at 5:45 pm on 29 April 2020.

Alert me about debates like this

Photo of Mr Neil Hamilton Mr Neil Hamilton UKIP 5:45, 29 April 2020

[Inaudible.]—for administering the small business rate relief grant of £10,000, which was supposed to go to all businesses that pay business rates. I have had many complaints from people around furnished holiday letting businesses in Dwyfor Meironnydd that Gwynedd county council is withholding payments because Welsh Government has set new criteria that apply no other form of business which these businesses have to satisfy in order to get the grant. I understand that the problem is to stop people using what are really second homes, and not businesses, and calling them their furnished holiday letting businesses and therefore qualifying for the grant, but it seems to me that the Welsh Government here is looking at the wrong target. The definition of a business for tax purposes is a very comprehensive one provided by Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs, and if somebody is actually using a second home as a second home and only in a very small minority of the time for letting purposes, then they shouldn't be paying business rates at all. So, county councils should really be administering the business rates scheme properly rather than depriving true businesses of what they're entitled to under this nationwide scheme. So, I wonder if the Minister would look again at the criteria here and see if they can be tweaked in some way. For example, why should a small business in this sector alone have to be more than 50 per cent of the owner's income?