{"id":6691,"date":"2020-05-24T20:54:06","date_gmt":"2020-05-24T20:54:06","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/?p=6691"},"modified":"2020-05-24T20:54:06","modified_gmt":"2020-05-24T20:54:06","slug":"strong-take-up-of-citys-covid-19-support","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/2020\/05\/24\/strong-take-up-of-citys-covid-19-support\/","title":{"rendered":"Strong take up of City\u2019s COVID-19 support"},"content":{"rendered":"

Almost $1 million in household and commercial rate payments have been deferred and substantial rent relief has been extended to small businesses and community organisations under City of Newcastle\u2019s COVID-19 support package.
\nThe $965,000 in rate deferrals have been made under 410 separate payment plans set up by both residents and businesses in consultation with the City as part of the $5.5 million Community and Economic Resilience Package adopted by Council in March.
\nFifty per cent rent reductions on City-owned buildings have eased the total burden on tenants by $28,000 a week, while around $450,000 has been allocated in grants to enable the community sector to\u202fsupport\u202fthe most vulnerable in our city.
\n\"Baptist-inside.jpg\"Newcastle\u00a0Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes\u00a0with Craig Budden at Baptist CareHopeStreet’s Wallsend Centre, which received $25,000 in support\u00a0through the City’s Rapid Response grants last month.<\/span><\/sup><\/strong>
\nFree online training, a $100,000\u202fe-Library expansion and firm commitment to a record capital works program, with an emphasis on local procurement and quick payments, are also part of the package.
\n\u201cIn supporting the city, we are focusing on areas where local government has a clear strength and mandate, and it\u2019s pleasing to see the take up has been strong to date,\u201d Newcastle Lord Mayor Nuatali Nelmes said.
\n\u201cAs well as the interest-free\u202frate\u202fdeferrals\u202ffor up to 15 months, we have rolled out an $800,000\u202fgrants program to boost the community sector and halved rents to provide much-needed relief for small businesses in\u202fCity-owned buildings.
\n\u201cWe understand that every business is suffering enormously right now and have provided as much support as possible as a local council.
\n\u201cMany in in our community are now unemployed and the elderly and those without family may become more vulnerable as they stay isolated, so we will further promote the City\u2019s existing financial hardship policies and support the taskforce of City leaders to map out the local economic recovery.\u201d
\nCouncil will help small business owners and staff undertake professional development training and accreditation as part of a $500,000 education package.
\nThis follows a 213 per cent increase in usage of an online learning package offered through Newcastle Libraries, with 2,291 sessions streamed free of charge in April.
\nThe Libraries\u2019 membership has increased by more than 1,000 during the pandemic after the City invested $60,000 in 5,800 additional e-book and audiobook titles, plus new video streaming platform \u2018Medici TV\u2019.
\nFor the latest updates on the City of Newcastle\u2019s response to the COVID-19 and changes to services, visit\u00a0www.newcastle.nsw.gov.au\/covid-19<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Almost $1 million in household and commercial rate payments have been deferred and substantial rent relief has been extended to small businesses and community organisations under City of Newcastle\u2019s COVID-19 support package. The $965,000 in rate deferrals have been made under 410 separate payment plans set up by both residents and businesses in consultation with … Continue reading “Strong take up of City\u2019s COVID-19 support”<\/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-6691","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\/6691","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=6691"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6691\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6691"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6691"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.16news.com.au\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6691"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}