Question to the HM Treasury:

To ask the Chancellor of the Exchequer, what plans his Department has to introduce emergency business rates relief for local news publishers during the covid-19 outbreak.

Office space occupied by local newspapers can benefit from a £1,500 annual business rates discount, extended to 2025. A range of further measures to support all businesses, including those not eligible for the business rates holiday, has also been made available. For example, the Government has launched the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme to help firms keep people in employment, and the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme. In addition, the Government brought forward the implementation date of the zero rate of VAT for e-publications to 1 May 2020.