Calls for free parking and 9-month rent holiday for Leeds city centre businesses

Leeds City Council should introduce a nine-month rent holiday to hospitality and retail businesses in order to give a helping hand to the local economy, according to one of the city’s Tory councillors.
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Coun Matthew Robinson also criticised the council for re-introducing parking charges upon the lifting of lockdown measures – and proposed a re-introduction of free parking in the run-up to Christmas to help boost city centre footfall.

The comments were made in a motion, known as a white paper, set to go before a full Leeds City Council meeting next week, where councillors will have the opportunity to vote on whether to support the ideas.

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The proposal ends with a three-point plan, which Coun Robinson claims would help businesses in the city recover from the Covid-19 pandemic.

Calls have been made for city centre businesses to have extra help.Calls have been made for city centre businesses to have extra help.
Calls have been made for city centre businesses to have extra help.

It lists: “Implementing a one-off discretionary payment scheme for businesses as a matter of urgency”; “Reintroducing free parking in council car parks in the run up to Christmas to boost local trade”; “Considering how it can develop a local version of the ‘National Time Out’ proposals, so that hospitality, leisure and retail businesses are given a nine-month rent free holiday in order to stabilise their finances.”

Although the motion did not outline how the council should pay for such schemes, it suggested some of the money allocated to the council from central government to tackle Covid remained unspent, and claims no money had gone towards helping small businesses based out of people’s homes.

It reads: “This Council welcomes the £7.8 million provided by Government to Leeds for the COVID-19 Discretionary Grant Fund but notes that as of August 31, £4 million was unspent.

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“Council notes that local authorities had significant discretion when it came to setting the eligibility criteria for their discretionary grants.

“Although the Government encouraged local authorities to focus on small businesses which faced high fixed property-related costs and which had missed out on the main business grant schemes due to the way they interacted with the business rates system, local authorities were able to pay grants to other kinds of businesses, according to their assessment of local economic need.

“Council is disappointed that no support has been offered by Leeds City Council to small businesses which operate from the owner’s home, despite neighbouring councils amending their schemes to do so.

“Council also regrets that the administration has decided to reintroduce parking charges across the city, at a time when local businesses could have benefited from visitors being able to park for free.”

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Coun Robinson is a Conservative councillor for Harewood. He is also set to stand as the Conservative candidate for next year’s police and crime commissioner elections.

The white paper will go before councillors at a full Leeds City Council meeting on Wednesday, September 16.