Two of 29 businesses affected by Foyle Street sewer works have applied for rates relief

Transcript

00:00Minister, you'll be aware that many businesses at this minute in time are

00:03dealing with challenging environments and rising costs. That is exacerbated

00:07within my own constituency of Foyle, actually in Foyle Street in the city

00:11centre, where ongoing water and sewage works are taking place and could take

00:16place now for up to a year. Can the Minister provide any support to those

00:20businesses who are affected?

00:21Certainly.

00:23Yeah and I think that the Member has corresponded with me on this issue also

00:28and I do recognise that sometimes when there are public grounds works taking

00:33place that there is inconvenience for businesses. So I will always consider

00:37cases put forward on relief on their individual merits and Members

00:42should be aware that this will always be done in the context that, as I outlined

00:47to Mr Donnelly earlier, that when we award relief for a specific purpose

00:52that is therefore less money we have to spend on public services or it

00:57means higher rates bills for other homes and businesses. Under the rating

01:01and valuation system every case is assessed by the LPS on its own merits by

01:06considering the impacts of the work on the NAV of the property. This is

01:11determined by established case law and a long-standing statutory framework that

01:16supports sustainability of a tax base used to fund both central and local

01:20government services.

01:23Can I thank the Minister for her response? I suppose, Minister, in terms of

01:28actual action for the businesses and I welcome your comments, would the Minister

01:33maybe commit to working closely with the Council to see what can be done? I know

01:36that one business talks about 40% reduction in footfall over the weekends

01:41that's something which isn't sustainable in the long term. So will the Minister

01:44commit to working closely with the Council to try and provide some support?

01:49LPS is aware that the ongoing works in Foyle Street are affecting I think it's

01:54up to 29 properties and they are currently dealing with applications from

01:58two businesses. In relation to those works obviously we would encourage

02:03businesses to engage with LPS and I will be happy for officials to work

02:07with Council officials to see what the impact is.