Welsh budget includes business rates discount for retail, leisure and hospitality firms

The Welsh budget includes a business rates discount for retail, leisure and hospitality firms, it has been confirmed.

The Welsh Government will give the pandemic-hit sectors a discount of 50% on their non-domestic rates next year.

This £116m package of funding, combined with existing permanent relief schemes, will ensure that over 85,000 properties are supported in 2022-23, it says. The scheme will be capped at £110,000 per business across Wales.

According to the Welsh Government, the funding includes £20m on top of the consequential funding received from the UK Government.

It says this follows the Welsh Government providing business rate support above and beyond the offer from the UK Government in this financial year.

A further £35m has been confirmed to freeze the non-domestic rates multiplier for 2022-23, ensuring there will be no increase in the amount of rates businesses are paying.

The move follows Chancellor Rishi Sunak announcing a 50% rates discount for these sectors in England.

Rebecca Evans, Minister for Finance and Local Government, said: “This budget will support the Wales of today and shape the Wales of tomorrow. It will support our public services to be stronger, put Wales further down the path to being a net zero nation, and create a fairer nation with equality at its heart.

“We are still operating in a difficult financial context, with our budget nearly £3bn lower than if it had increased in line with the economy since 2010-11. Revenue funding is increasing by less than half a per cent in real terms between 2022-23 and 2024-25, and overall capital funding is falling in cash terms in each year of the Spending Review period – 11% lower in real terms in 2024-25 than the current year.

‘Tough choices’ 

She added: “The UK Government’s Spending Review did not deliver for Wales and this budget is delivered in that context. While there are tough choices ahead, we have been able to provide funding that will allow Wales to rise to the challenges we face, grounded in the distinctively Welsh values of environmental, social and economic justice.

“Where the Spending Review was silent on the climate and nature emergency, we are taking action. Where the Spending Review did not support coal tip safety, we are stepping up. And where the Spending Review failed to address regional inequality, we are investing in every part of Wales and making meaningful investment in tackling inequality.

“This is a budget to kickstart delivery of our ambitious and bold Programme for Government and I am proud to publish it, providing the foundations for recovery and moving us towards a stronger, fairer, greener Wales.”