CORONAVIRUS GRANT

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july
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Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:57 am

Post by july »

I think we should all do that!! It seems unfair as we still have bills and mortgages to cover!
july
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Joined: Fri Jul 15, 2011 11:57 am

Post by july »

Can you provide details of who you wrote to so others can follow....
Eagerbeaver
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Post by Eagerbeaver »

The Welsh authorities are paying out grants to all businesses except self catering. Gwynedd paid out £13M today. Self catering accommodation payments have been delayed pending further investigation.
The issue is that there is a belief that some 2nd home owners have flipped their home from council tax to business rates when new rules came in with 2nd home owners having to pay a premium if the property was not their main residence or part of an FHL business.
I am told that the authorities will be writing to self catering accommodation within the next 10 days.
It hasn't been made clear to me as to what clarification they will want but it has been proposed that your property must have clear planning permission for it to be used as self catering accommodation.
If this is the case, the Welsh authorities will be kicking themselves in the knees (or perhaps higher) as many 2nd home owners who did this flip used the planning system to convince the valuation office that their property was no longer a dwelling whereas many legitimate FHLs will have never had to ask for that change of use so won't have it.
We shall see how things go but it won't be the first time that the Welsh authorities will have given money to the wealthy non-Welsh communities whilst leaving local business owners out in the cold.
shamac
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Post by shamac »

https://assets.publishing.service.gov.u ... sv/preview

List of how much they have to give out, It's not their money, keep fighting for it guys.
The harder you work, the luckier you get.
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Sammy
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Location: North Wales

Post by Sammy »

Eagerbeaver - this is from the Gwynedd Council website:

"Important message for owners of self-catering accommodation

Welsh Government has published revised guidance in relation to self-catering accommodation. In accordance with the new guidance, properties will not be eligible for grant unless the following criteria are met:

The self-catering accommodation can produce two years of trading accounts to 31 March 2019
The self-catering accommodation must actually have been let for a period of 140 days or more in the financial year 2019-20
The self-catering accommodation business must be the primary source of income for the owner (minimum threshold is 50%)

Local authorities have full discretion to request and examine trading business accounts, booking lists and self-assessment tax returns submitted to HMRC for the financial year ending 31 March 2019 if additional evidence is required to demonstrate that these criteria are met. In cases where local authorities have decided to request additional evidence and the evidence shows that the scheme criteria are not met, local authorities are required to withhold payment of grant.

The Council will be writing to ratepayers who fall into the category above to invite them to provide the required information."
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apexblue
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Post by apexblue »

Thx Sammy. Well 2nd request wrong it's let for 70 days and available for 140
It is better to remain quiet and have one think you are stupid, than to open your mouth and remove all doubt....

The biggest mistake we make in life is thinking we have time.
zebedee
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Location: yorkshire dales

Post by zebedee »

I think you should ask what happens to the money if you don’t get it.
Do the council keep it?

It is a bit rich to be demanding that it is the primary source of income as a criteria.

(Personally I would be raising the roof about this)
Eagerbeaver
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Joined: Tue Mar 19, 2013 5:48 pm

Post by Eagerbeaver »

The Gwynedd Council requirements seem unreasonable and are not likely to be met by most FHL owners. This will have a big impact on many. How can this be justified when other counties are no asking for so many hoops to be jumped through.
I'm not sure who business owners can turn to for justice.
Tremewan
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Location: Yorkshire Dales

Post by Tremewan »

Why on earth have some Welsh authorities allowed so many 2nd homers to go onto business rates? Do they not understand the difference between these and legitimate small businesses? This seems to be what is at the root of the problem.
SusanMay
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Location: Dorset

Post by SusanMay »

Yes, the problem lies with the Councils allowing second home owners to switch to business rates in the first place without properly proving that they were FHLs. It gave the rest of us a bad name when it made the papers. Not just in Wales either.

I'm glad my cottage isn't in Wales so i don't need to go through the hoops of proving it's a holiday cottage. I do feel sorry for those that do. What about the businesses that have only been running a year or two? And 140 days occupied (if that's what it means) is definitely OTT.

Just a thought but an easier way of proving if you have a legitimate self catering business would have been for them to ask for proof of commercial waste arrangements. I doubt if second home owners will have bothered to use their Council's or a third party commercial waste service, but a FHL owner who has switched to business rates certainly should have.
fleur1277
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Location: North Wales

Post by fleur1277 »

To be honest this proposal is better than what the Gwynedd Council leader was proposing last week albeit it showed how ill informed he is. He had been proposing that only FHL that had been running since 2010 and had had planning permission to turn the premises into a holiday let would be eligible. Planning permission is not required in Wales to turn a house into a holiday let something you would have thought he would have known. The Nationalists are using this Coronavirus crisis as an excuse to kick out at the English people who have bought properties in rural North Wales. They are basically a racist party whose hate of English people is so extreme it is a disgrace. Thankfully they are in the minority but they like to shout a lot. I just hope this does not deter people coming back to stay in North Wales as i can assure them the majority of Welsh people are not such racists.
Eagerbeaver
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Post by Eagerbeaver »

The injustice is that unless you only have a FHL as your sole form of income, you are unlikely to qualify in Gwynedd. Surely that can't be legal.

FHLs don't bring much money in and it has to be 50% of your income. If you do the maths, you would need to earn about half minimum wage to qualify.
IV63
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Post by IV63 »

Highland council processed our application quickly and painlessly and we had the money in about a week (including the easter weekend in the middle).

The scheme in Scotland is slightly different. Here you have to demonstrate 140 nights let in the previous year, and show that FHL income is more than a third of total income.

In our case a copy of last years self assessment form and a bookings report from our channel manager were accepted without question.
Eagerbeaver
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Post by Eagerbeaver »

That is iunteresting but without prying into your personal circumstances, if your holiday let income is say £15K, then that would suggest that your income from elsewhere is less than £45K. That to me, still seems to be a high threshold but obviously more reasonable than the Welsh stance.
shamac
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Post by shamac »

This seems to be so unfair. Northumberland council asked for your rates number to prove you pay business rates and that was it, no accounts, no proof of lettings! These councils have millions and millions to give away, I suspect they may be hoping to hang onto to some of that money for other things.
The harder you work, the luckier you get.
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