Dear Constituent,

Thank you for contacting me about business rates relief for food and drink wholesalers.

I appreciate your concerns on this issue and know how important it is for people in our area. Hospitality businesses have been some of the hardest hit in the pandemic and this will of course affect not only these businesses themselves, but also the many wholesale businesses in the supply chain that they both depend on and support. Indeed, I know the Federation of Wholesale Distributors (FWD) has highlighted that wholesalers lost up to 80% of their trade while the pandemic forced their customers to close. I also appreciate that the survival of wholesale businesses will be vital to the recovery from the pandemic.

I therefore agree with you on the importance of wholesalers receiving the support promised to them as quickly as possible and in a fair and consistent way. I share your concerns about the need for proper guidance in order to avoid a postcode lottery because local councils are uncertain on whether businesses are eligible. I am also concerned that cuts to local government over the past decade have reduced the capacity of local authorities to process applications for the promised relief quickly.

As you will know, the Bill that the Government says it must pass before making available and publishing guidance on the £1.5 billion business rates relief fund passed the House of Commons in September and is currently in the House of Lords. I support this legislation. However, I do not see why indicative guidance and funding allocations cannot be published and sent to local authorities before the legislation passes, so they can get on quickly with designing their schemes for administering the relief as soon as they are able to.

This rates relief was announced in March and is still yet to be paid out. I do not believe it is good enough that businesses have had to wait so long for support and even to know if they will qualify for it. This delay could mean some firms do not survive to benefit.  I can therefore assure you that I will continue to support efforts to press the Government to publish the guidance and get the relief out to businesses as soon as possible.

Thank you once again for contacting me.

Yours sincerely,

Peter Dowd MP