Craig Whittaker – 2016 Parliamentary Question to the Department for Communities and Local Government
The below Parliamentary question was asked by Craig Whittaker on 2016-05-19.
To ask the Secretary of State for Communities and Local Government, what steps his Department is taking to work with local authorities whose areas experienced flooding over winter 2015-16 in order to support their local high street economy.
James Wharton
DCLG launched a funding package in December worth £100 million to directly support flooded householders and businesses by:
- launching the Bellwin Fund so that local authorities incurring costs over the threshold can apply;
- making a grant of up to £500 for each household available through local authorities to help with recovery costs;
- exempting households from paying council tax for the entire time they are out of their home;
- making a grant equivalent to £2,500 per business available through local authorities to help businesses to recover from loss of trade;
- and giving business rates relief to those that have had their trading disrupted.
Our Recovery Package also supports homes and businesses to protect their properties against future floods through the Property Level Resilience Scheme.
In addition to this bespoke recovery package, we’re taking action to help high streets thrive through a range of targeted tax breaks, sensible planning changes and measures to ensure fairer parking for motorists. At the Budget, we announced the biggest ever cut in business rates in England – worth £6.7 billion over the next five years and cutting business rates for all ratepayers, meaning 600,000 of the smallest businesses won’t have to pay business rates again.
