Foot and Mouth Disease: Assistance to Equestrian and Other Rural Businesses (Hansard, 30 April 2001)

§ Lord McIntosh of Haringey

My right honourable friend Michael Meacher, the Minister for the Environment, met representatives from British equestrian-based businesses on 9 April.

In the other place on 23 April, Michael Meacher outlined the positive steps that are being taken by government to help rural businesses.

These include a number of measures to provide relief from business rates. They include increased government funding, from 75 per cent to 95 per cent, to enable local authorities to offer hardship rate relief to businesses in rural areas, targeted at businesses below £12,000 rateable value, and offering reductions of up to £1,290 over a three-month period. A further measure is the deferment, by three months, of the deadline for business rate appeals in rural areas.

Rural businesses will also be helped by the Government's legislation to extend mandatory 50 per cent. rate relief to all food shops in small rural settlements, and that legislation will also provide a transitional, five-year, 50 per cent. mandatory rate relief for new enterprises on former agricultural land. At the same time, recent regulations have extended 50 per cent. rate relief to sole village pubs and garages with a rateable value of less than £9,000. It has also been arranged that, when a rural local authority agrees to defer payments, my department will in turn defer the payments that the authority is due to make to the national rate pool. The Valuation Office will consider applications from businesses for a reduction in their rateable value to take account of the impact of foot and mouth disease.

The Inland Revenue and Customs and Excise will take a sympathetic approach to requests for deferral or extended time to pay for tax and national insurance contributions, especially for rural businesses in agriculture, transport and tourism, and related retail businesses.

The major banks have made it clear that they will, on a case-by-case basis, consider mechanisms such as extended lines of credit, capital repayment holidays and other measures.

The types of business that can apply for loans up to £250,000 under the small firms loan guarantee scheme have been extended.

Michael Meacher announced a further £15 million for regional development agencies to help rural businesses in the worst hit areas. To help those who have lost work because of foot and mouth, the Benefits Agency has announced that it will provide quick assessment of applications for jobseeker's allowance from such applicants. My honourable friend the Secretary of State for Education and Employment has announced a skills boost package to ease the impact of foot and mouth disease on jobs.

The Government have pledged to match public donations to rural charities, to help to address cases of severe hardship and to provide support for 72WA organisations responding to rural stress. The scheme is being administered by the Countryside Agency and will apply to personal donations, including the generous donations of the Prince of Wales and the Duke of Westminster.

The Countryside Agency will also make available grants of £3.8 million to help local authorities to open their footpaths. Further advertising by tourism organisations is being promoted by the Department for Culture, Media and Sport, and my right honourable friend the Secretary of State announced additional support of £6 million for the English Tourism Council and the British Tourist Authority to get the message across that Britain is open for business.

That all adds up to a total package of immediate practical help for the rural economy of more than £200 million. The task force will continue to consider longer-term measures to help to get the rural economy moving when the disease has been dealt with.