Industry leaders, political figures and Business Improvement Districts across the country are calling on the Government to support businesses within the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors who have a rateable value of more than £51,000.
Bath BID is supporting the #RaiseTheBar national campaign to call on Government to expand the rateable value threshold for all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses from £51,000 to any business with a rateable value up to and including £150,000, allowing businesses the opportunity to access the £25,000 grant in order to survive.
The campaign is supported by industry wide bodies that represent over 100,000 businesses across the UK, including The BID Foundation and Association of Town & City Management (ATCM).
The retail, hospitality and leisure sector is vital to the UK economy and must be protected at all costs.
- The retail industry alone generated £394 billion worth of sales in 2019 with 306,655 units across the UK.
- In 2019, the UK leisure sector reached over £111 billion in sales.
- The UK hospitality employs over 3.2 million people, that’s 11% of UK jobs, making it the third largest sector in the UK, accounting for £130 billion in revenue, 6% of all businesses and 5% GDP.
We believe strongly that the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant provision and, in particular, the threshold of £51,000 to be far too low to provide adequate support to these businesses in their time of need.
Allison Herbert, CEO Bath BID comments;
“In a city like Bath where the rateable values are typically higher than other parts of the country and we have a high number of businesses in the most impacted sectors, the Bath BID is keen to support this campaign to ensure that no businesses are excluded from the Government’s grant funding.”
Show your support: Sign the petition here.
