{"id":58,"date":"2018-10-11T14:18:53","date_gmt":"2018-10-11T14:18:53","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=58"},"modified":"2018-10-11T14:18:53","modified_gmt":"2018-10-11T14:18:53","slug":"ton-of-businesses-take-up-citys-financial-help","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2018\/10\/11\/ton-of-businesses-take-up-citys-financial-help\/","title":{"rendered":"Ton of businesses take up City&#039;s financial help"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>City of Newcastle is reminding small businesses in the CBD of more than $400,000 still on offer as part of its rates relief scheme for those impacted by the light rail construction.<br \/>\nTo date more than 102 applications have been received, with Council paying out more than $37,000 in rate relief.<br \/>\nTo be eligible for rate relief, a CBD business needs the property owner to have paid their first quarterly rates, which were due at the end of August this year.<br \/>\nRebates have been returned to 95 applicants in the first 10 weeks of the program, which is open for the duration of the 2018\/19 financial year.<br \/>\nEligible properties are entitled to financial assistance amounting to half the special rate historically passed onto business improvement association Newcastle Now, which in turn used the funds to promote the CBD.<br \/>\n&#8220;Council took this decision to provide direct rate relief to those businesses suffering from the disruption that the construction of light rail has brought about,&#8221; Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said.<br \/>\n&#8220;We understand that for many small businesses their bottom line has been impacted, and this rate relief was a way Council could play a role in minimising the impact of light rail. Once it became clear that the State Government wasn\u2019t going to provide rent relief, it was important that City of Newcastle looked for a way of supporting these businesses that didn\u2019t come at the expense of our existing $100 million works program.<br \/>\n&#8220;There are hundreds of local small businesses that are yet to apply for rate relief. Clearly many are unaware that the funding exists or that they only need pay their first quarterly rates notice to be eligible. The process of application is straight forward, and businesses can apply at any time throughout the current financial year.&#8221;<br \/>\nThe helping hand was extended in July following the Lord Mayor&#8217; successful amendment to Council&#8217;s 2018-19 budget.<br \/>\nFinancial assistance is available:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>to the tenant(s) of the property, or<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li>to the property owner &#8211; providing the property is solely owner occupied and no part is leased out<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Property owners are eligible for the relief after paying their first quarterly rates instalment for 2018\/19.<br \/>\nThey should complete an\u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/getattachment\/Council\/Our-Responsibilities\/Rates\/Financial-Assistance-City-Centre-Special-Rate-Pa\/citycentre-finacial-assistance.pdf.aspx?lang=en-AU\"><u>application form<\/u><\/a>\u00a0together with details of tenants (with their signature) where applicable.<br \/>\nIf more than one tenant occupies the property, a separate form is required for each tenant.<br \/>\nCouncil will then provide half of the amount they would have paid for the 2018\/19 City Centre Special Rate in to the bank account nominated on the application form.<br \/>\nBoth property owner and tenant(s) will be notified by email once Council makes the financial assistance payment is made.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>City of Newcastle is reminding small businesses in the CBD of more than $400,000 still on offer as part of its rates relief scheme for those impacted by the light rail construction. To date more than 102 applications have been received, with Council paying out more than $37,000 in rate relief. To be eligible for &hellip; <a href=\"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2018\/10\/11\/ton-of-businesses-take-up-citys-financial-help\/\" class=\"more-link\">Continue reading<span class=\"screen-reader-text\"> &#8220;Ton of businesses take up City&#039;s financial help&#8221;<\/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-58","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\/58","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=58"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/58\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=58"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=58"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=58"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}