Industry News

PPA calls for extension of Business Rates Relief

Last week, PPA repeated our call for the extension of the business rates relief scheme to include publishers. Since the start of the COVID-19 crisis we have called for government to extend the scope of the business rate holiday for hospitality, retail and leisure business to include publishers.

This week PPA wrote to the Business Secretary, Alok Sharma MP, calling for urgent action to help the industry as revenues from advertising and newsstand remain depressed, while demand for the quality, trusted content we publish continues to grow. As an industry, publishers have followed government guidance and adapted to the pandemic, with the vast majority of people working from home, yet we continue to face high fixed costs, such as business rates.

Separately, in Scotland, legislation passed last week extended the scope or the business rate holiday to include “news publishing” businesses. PPA has written to Cabinet Secretary for Economy, Fair Work and Culture, Fiona Hyslop MSP, to clarify how news publishing will be defined.

PPA has called for assurances that this will be applied to both magazine and newspaper publishers. A non-discriminatory application of this extension will ensure the broad range of companies that deliver high-quality journalism and play a valuable role in providing communities with news, information and entertainment can continue do so.

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