Following on from our previous article, we want to offer you, as holiday property owners, as much help and advice as possible during these uncertain times. We know this is going to be a tough few months for the industry and we are here to support you.

The Government has put in place a number of measures to help businesses of all sizes. They have set out to introduce a business rates holiday for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England for the 2020 to 2021 tax year. If your holiday property company is set up as a business then this could in fact apply to you. In order to access this scheme you do not have to take any action, this will apply to your next council tax bill in April 2020.

For more information, please visit the Gov.uk website. You will also find advice and guidance on cash grants for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses which again may apply to you.

If it does come to to the point where your business employs any workers for which you can no longer afford to pay due to for example a drop in occupancy then you may wish to designate those employees as "furloughed workers" rather than making them redundant. HMRC will reimburse 80% of a "Furloughed workers" wage costs under the "Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme" allowing you to continue to pay employees. The current guidance states this applies to all UK businesses and that the HMRC portal will be online shortly where more details will be provided.

You can find out more about the "Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme" here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses#support-for-businesses-through-the-coronavirus-job-retention-scheme

We are all in this together and will be doing as much as we possibly can to help our property owners at this time. Likewise, if you are a property owner and feel you could help other owners in the industry let us know any advice you wish to share, it would be greatly appreciated.