BUSINESS rates in Newport city centre will be slashed up to 46 per cent from next year.

From April 2017, business rates in Commercial Street will go down 46 per cent with Friars Walk businesses seeing a 30 per cent drop.

The news, announced today by the Valuation Office Agency (VOA), have been welcomed by business owners, who say it could make the city centre more attractive to businesses considering a move to Newport.

Adrian Evans, of Newport Now, said: “The reduction in property rates is very welcome and not before time.

“This could have a very positive effect on Newport and make property in the centre more accessible to those looking to locate here.”

Business rates are based on what it costs to rent a property, with this latest revaluation being based on rental costs from 2008 to 2015.

According to Daniel Johnstone, Senior Surveyor at Colliers International Bristol, several other Welsh town centres will see a drop. Among the other areas seeing a big drop are Queen Street in Cardiff, where business rates will fall by 20 per cent and some areas of Bridgend where a 52 per cent drop will occur.

Speaking about the good news for Newport, Tom Evans, from Crafted, in Friars Walk, said that the business rate cut would make it easier for his business to find a permanent home.

He said: “Business rates are one of the major barriers small, independent businesses face - it’s a big expense. This is incredible, it’ll make a big difference.

“For us, it will make it more viable to find a permanent home in the city centre.”

Haydn Thomas, of Hutchings & Thomas Chartered Surveyors, Gold Tops, Newport, which handles property throughout the city centre, said: “The reduction in rates will be gratefully received by those already here and could well make the city centre more attractive for businesses looking to locate.

“It now has to be seen exactly how central and local government will act and what measures they will have to take to fill the gap in their income which this halving of business rates will create.”

The announcement comes on the same week the Welsh Government secretary Mark Drakeford announced plans for a new £10m scheme to support small businesses, in addition to a £100m tax cut for small businesses in Wales.