MWT Coronavirus Newsletter - Issue 36
Business Rate Relief - Good News
The Welsh Government has announced that Retail, leisure and hospitality businesses will not need to pay business rates for next year.

The Business Rate Relief holiday extends for the whole year in Wales which is really good news. It is much more generous than the package announced by Rishi Sunak for England where the business rate holiday was confirmed only up until June.

Further information about the announcement can be found here: https://gov.wales/business-rates-holiday-extended-12-months
ERF Sector Specific Grant Now Open
The Sector Specific Grant application phase 2 window opened at 10am today, Tuesday 9 March 2021 and will close at 8pm on Friday 12 March 2021 or until funds are fully committed.

This is targeted at Hospitality, Tourism and Leisure (HTL) businesses and associated supply chain businesses with:
  • 10 or more staff;
  • that will be materially impacted by a greater than 60% impact of turnover as a result of on-going alert level 4 restrictions between 25 January 2021 to 31 March 2021.

If you have received a grant via the Welsh Government’s Culture Recovery Fund (CRF) to support costs through to 31st March 2021, you are not eligible to apply for this fund.

If you go through the eligibility checker questions and you are eligible, it will open the online application form.
In applying for an ERF grant you should also have considered the Job Retention Scheme (also known as the furlough scheme) which has now been extended to 30 September 2021. 

Other sources of support during the pandemic can be found on the Business Wales Covid-19 website.
Additional funding for Hospitality, Leisure and Tourism businesses
The Welsh Government has also confirmed that pending the outcome of the next review this Friday, 12 March, a further £150 million in grants could be made available to firms, including micro businesses, through the Welsh Government’s Non Domestic Rates (NDR) scheme if coronavirus restrictions are extended.

Businesses in the hospitality, tourism, leisure and non-essential retail sectors that pay non-domestic rates would receive an additional payment of up to £5k regardless of the number of employees they have.
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