The administration says its aim is to introduce a permanent scheme which more effectively targets support for small businesses.  As a consequence, one of the proposals is to limit relief for businesses qualifying for SBRR across multiple properties.

Currently in Wales there is no restriction to SBRR where a national chain owns a number of small properties. The Welsh government says it now intends to restrict relief either to a set number of properties per business or to a set number of properties per local authority.

To open up the relief to more businesses the government is considering raising the lower threshold for 100% relief from £6,000 to £8,000. This would see an additional 18,000 businesses benefiting from SBRR. Alternatively the upper threshold for relief could be increased by £1,000 to £13,000 to extend the scheme to a further 16,000 businesses.

The consultation asks for views on whether the new rules should include exemptions or additional relief for certain sectors which support wider government objectives, such as the childcare sector.

For example, in order to support the delivery of the 30-hour childcare commitment, the Welsh government is considering providing further support to these types of property through the SBRR scheme. The consultation explores the different ways this could be delivered, which include  providing 100% relief to all childcare premises with a rateable value up to £12,000; or  introducing different relief thresholds for childcare premises, for example 100% relief up to £9,000 and tapered relief up to £16,000.

The consultation also considers the introduction of time-limited relief, which would support eligible businesses in the early years with relief being gradually withdrawn once they became self-sustaining.
In 2017/18 the Welsh government intends to provide £110m of support to small businesses via SBRR and has forecast that the new regime will offer a similar level of funding.

To provide sufficient notice for ratepayers to undertake financial planning and to allow time for local authorities and their software providers to incorporate the new scheme into their billing processes, the Welsh government proposes that this legislation is laid in December 2017. It will be published alongside a summary of consultation responses.

The deadline for comments is 13 October.

Delivering a Tax Cut for Small Businesses a New Small Business Rates Relief Scheme for Wales is here.