Responding to today’s budget Vidhya Alakeson, Chief Executive of the independent trust Power to Change, said:
‘Action on business rates is extremely welcome.
‘Businesses which work for both profit and social good are already saving money for councils, often by taking over local assets and addressing the needs of local people.
‘But these community businesses are working against a difficult backdrop, and councils can offer them a little more help.
‘Local authorities should consider the help they can offer community businesses when using the new discretionary fund’.