{"id":5725,"date":"2020-03-30T06:14:22","date_gmt":"2020-03-30T06:14:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=5725"},"modified":"2020-03-30T06:14:22","modified_gmt":"2020-03-30T06:14:22","slug":"city-provides-community-financial-hardship-support-in-response-to-covid-19","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/03\/30\/city-provides-community-financial-hardship-support-in-response-to-covid-19\/","title":{"rendered":"City provides community financial hardship support in response to COVID-19"},"content":{"rendered":"

City of Newcastle is providing financial hardship support for businesses and residents\u00a0affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as part of a\u00a0$5.5 million Community and Economic Resilience package.
\nLord Mayor\u00a0Nuatali Nelmes\u00a0said\u00a0local businesses\u00a0are\u00a0facing supply chain issues\u00a0and\u00a0substantially reduced economic activity\u00a0with the unemployment rate\u00a0likely to\u00a0continue to rise\u00a0as COVID-19 continues to spread.
\n\u201cWe understand it is an\u00a0extremely\u00a0challenging\u00a0time for many people in our community so it\u2019s important\u00a0City of Newcastle\u00a0does\u00a0everything\u00a0possible to\u00a0support our community\u2019s resilience during the COVID-19 pandemic.
\n\u201cThe\u00a0City will provide financial hardship support\u00a0for\u00a0residents\u00a0and business owners\u00a0to develop payment plans for their rates, with\u00a0interest penalties waived until 30 June 2021.
\n\u201cThe next rates instalment is not due until 31 May, so people\u00a0experiencing financial hardship\u00a0have plenty of time to contact\u00a0City of Newcastle\u00a0to\u00a0organise a payment\u00a0plan.
\n\u201cThe payment plan options will be determined on an individual basis after consultation with a Debt Recovery officer.\u00a0If you are already on a\u00a0payment plan, you\u00a0will have the interest waived\u00a0for 12 months.\u201d
\nLocal businesses\u00a0and residents\u00a0will receive cash flow relief\u00a0with\u00a0a 50 per cent discount\u00a0given\u00a0on rent for all City-owned buildings\u00a0and land\u00a0for the June\u00a0and\u00a0September quarter.
\n\u201cThis\u00a0will reduce financial\u00a0pressure for dozens of local\u00a0small\u00a0businesses and community\u202forganisations,\u201d\u00a0Cr Nelmes said.
\n\u201cIn addition, the\u00a0package focuses on\u00a0stimulating the Newcastle\u00a0economy\u00a0through a\u00a0\u2018buy local\u2019 commitment.\u202fBusinesses within the Newcastle Local Government Area will be\u202ffavoured\u202fwith\u00a0the usual local weighting assessment of 10 per cent increased wherever possible.”
\n\u201cWe will also fast track our invoice payment to provide improved cash-flow for businesses and to keep the economy ticking.
\n\u201cCity of Newcastle has implemented a range of flexible approaches to allow\u00a0essential businesses and service providers to operate responsively to the city\u2019s changing needs in line with the latest advice from the NSW Government and Federal Government.\u00a0This includes flexible truck delivery times\u00a0for supermarkets and extended operating hours for doctors\u2019\u00a0surgeries.
\n\u201cDue to the\u00a0additional challenges posed by COVID-19, we have waived fees on library\u00a0fees and have\u00a0committed\u00a0to\u00a0hold the City\u2019s hourly parking rate for 12 months.\u201d
\nFor\u202ffurther information on City of Newcastle\u2019s response to COVID-19 please\u00a0see\u202fnewcastle.nsw.gov.au\/COVID-19<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

City of Newcastle is providing financial hardship support for businesses and residents\u00a0affected by the COVID-19 pandemic as part of a\u00a0$5.5 million Community and Economic Resilience package. Lord Mayor\u00a0Nuatali Nelmes\u00a0said\u00a0local businesses\u00a0are\u00a0facing supply chain issues\u00a0and\u00a0substantially reduced economic activity\u00a0with the unemployment rate\u00a0likely to\u00a0continue to rise\u00a0as COVID-19 continues to spread. \u201cWe understand it is an\u00a0extremely\u00a0challenging\u00a0time for many people in … Continue reading “City provides community financial hardship support in response to COVID-19”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5725","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-newcastle"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5725","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5725"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5725\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5725"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5725"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5725"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}