To ask the Minister for the Economy (i) to give her assessment of the impact and competitive disadvantage to businesses in Northern Ireland of the suspension of business rates in England for those companies with a rateable value of less than £51,000 and; (ii) to outline her plans to work with the Minister of Finance to address any impact.

The Member will be aware that significant progress on business support has been made in the intervening period since she tabled her question.

To date, my own Department has distributed over £300 million in grants to businesses and the micro-businesses fund has also opened, with over 2,000 applications received. In total, over 40,000 businesses in Northern Ireland will have been eligible to apply for support under all of the Northern Ireland Covid-19 grant schemes. Many businesses have also received support from UK-wide schemes with rates relief being a significant support factor.

As noted above, in the intervening period the Executive has implemented its approach to supporting businesses with relief on rates. Initially the introduction of a 3 months rates holiday, subsequently extended to 4 months, provided an immediate support to businesses. That was subsequently followed by a targeted rate relief scheme that will provide businesses in retail, hospitality, leisure, tourism, childcare and airports with 100% rate relief for the full financial year. It should also be noted that the scheme to be applied over 12 months has a wider scope in NI than it does in other parts of the UK.