Ulster Unionist Finance spokesperson, Leslie Cree has welcomed the Executive’s endorsement of a scheme to levy a charge on larger stores and to use the revenue raised to finance a rate cut for smaller traders.
The North Down MLA said:
“This measure has the potential to raise approximately £5 million, with 76 large stores paying an average around £66,000 each.
Whilst the sums involved are not huge, they will nonetheless provide some much needed relief for local smaller businesses which are being hit particularly hard in the current economic recession.
It is of course absolutely vital that a balance is struck and that in seeking to provide help to small businesses we do not add to the burden of bigger stores to the extent where they are forced to cut jobs or even close stores, and I am satisfied that these proposals - limited as they are for a three year period - do indeed strike a sensible balance."