Holiday Accommodation and Second Homes: Coronavirus

(asked on 27th April 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government how much money has been claimed under the Coronavirus Business Rates Retention Scheme (a) by second home owners and (b) for holiday lets in Suffolk.


Answered by
Simon Clarke Portrait
Simon Clarke
This question was answered on 4th May 2020

Government has made £12.3 billion available to businesses under the Small Business Grants Fund and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund. As stated in the Grant Funding Schemes guidance, businesses in scope of the Small Business Grants Fund are those which, on 11 March 2020, were eligible for relief under the Small Business Rate Relief Scheme (including those with a Rateable Value between £12,000 and £15,000 which receive tapered relief) or the Rural Rate Relief Scheme. Businesses in scope of the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund are those that were eligible on 11 March 2020 for a discount under the Expanded Retail Discount scheme and with a rateable value of less than £51,000.

The grant funding replicates the eligibility for the specific rate relief schemes. It is for local authorities to determine eligibility for reliefs, having regard to guidance issued by the Government, and they are contacting businesses directly to deliver these grants.

As of 26 April, over 610,000 business premises have received grants across the Small Business Grants Fund and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund, totalling over £7.59 billion. We do not hold data from local authorities broken down by sector. We have, however, published, a full breakdown of grant funding allocated to and distributed by each local authority here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses.

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