SOMERSET West and Taunton Council has been working hard to ensure local businesses get the help they need during the coronavirus crisis by responding as quickly as possible to the measures announced by the Government.

The council (SWAT) has applied the 100 per cent Extended Retail Rates Discount, for 2020/21 and has amended approximately 1,200 rate accounts by the end of March for the businesses concerned, awarding over £24 million in discount so far.

This means that those eligible businesses will have no rates to pay during 2020/21 in respect of the premises concerned. If these businesses were due to have rates payments collected by direct debit from April these will not now be taken.

SWAT has uploaded lists of the properties that have been awarded the 100 per cent discount to the ’Council Tax and business rates advice’ tab of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) Advice and Information page of the council’s website.

Notices will be issued to the affected businesses in due course for their records.  Advice will also be available in the same place about what a business should do if it thinks it should be entitled to the discount but it has not been given one.

SWAT has also made arrangements to make the £10,000 and £25,000 Small Business Grant Fund and Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund payments.

Before payments can be made, the Government needs us to ask the businesses concerned for some basic information which should be readily to hand. 

The council has created a simple online form to capture this information which should take just a couple of minutes to complete.

Again, it will be available from the same link on the coronavirus information page where eligibility advice is also available.

“Our aim is to get payments into the bank accounts of the eligible businesses within seven working days of us receiving the required information within the online form,” said a spokesman.