MOST Executive parties have all voiced support for a targeted approach for extending rates relief for businesses in the north.
As it stands, no business in Northern Ireland will pay rates for three months. In England, a 12 month rates holiday has been introduced for all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses.
Over the weekend, Belfast Chamber, Retail NI and Hospitality Ulster urged the Executive to act, stating that the livelihoods of thousands of workers and the future of the firms that employ them depends on the extension of the rates holiday for the businesses worst affected by the coronavirus pandemic.
Reacting to the calls, Sinn Féin’s Caoimhe Archibald yesterday called for a targeted approach.
“Copying the scheme operating in England would not be a good use of scarce resources as it subsidises supermarkets which continue to trade very successfully,” she said.
SDLP MLA Sinead McLaughlin and Alliance MP Stephen Farry also voiced support for a targeted extension of the rates holiday.
UUP MLA Steve Aiken yesterday called on Finance Minsiter Conor Murphy to urgently extend targeted rates reliefs for businesses.
On Friday, DUP MLA Keith Buchanan appeared to call for the three month rates holiday for all businesses to be extended to 12 months, including manufacturers. It followed analysis projecting that Mid Ulster would be hardest hit economically by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Party colleague and Economy Minister Diane Dodds previously said she would urge Executive colleagues to consider extending the rates relief scheme "so that it is at least as generous as elsewhere in the UK".
