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BID backs campaign to support retail, hospitality and leisure
04/05/2020
#RaiseTheBar campaign seeking to make grants available to more of town’s businesses in sector
The Banbury Business Improvement District (BID) is backing a national lobbying campaign asking for rate relief grants to be made more widely available for all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. The request to Central Government askes for the threshold to be lifted so more of the town’s businesses in this sector can have access to a £25,000 grant in order to survive.
Currently the grant is only available to businesses with a rateable value of £51,000 or less. The request is to raise this threshold to businesses with a rateable value up to and including £150,000.
Banbury BID is encouraging local people to sign up and support the campaign at www.raisethebarcampaign.co.uk.
Jo Holland, BID Manager for Banbury, said: “We estimate around 6% of our levying paying businesses in Banbury have a rateable value of more than £51,000 and therefore no access to the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant.
“We strongly believe the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant provision, particularly the threshold of £51,000 to be far too low to provide adequate support to these businesses in their time of need. Amending the rateable value from £51,000 to £150,000, would save even more businesses and jobs in Banbury.”
The #RaiseTheBar campaign is spearheaded by Croydon BID and supported by industry wide bodies that represent over 100,000 businesses across the UK.
The UK hospitality employs over 3.2 million people – 11% of UK jobs. It is the third largest sector in the UK, accounting for £130 billion in revenue.
Published: by Banbury FM Newsteam