The Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce welcomes the Government announcement that the rental discount scheme for commercial tenants in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors has been extended for a further month until the end of June following further representations from the Chamber. These representations were made in light of the persistently weak trading environment for many businesses in these sectors over the last three months.

The Chamber also welcomes the moratorium on rental increases to commercial tenants of Government-owned premises until 31st  December 2021.

Similarly, the additional 25% early rates payment discount that had previously been applied to qualifying sectors has now been extended to all business sectors for the whole of the third quarter (from 1 July 2021 to 30 September 2021) with the exception of supermarkets and pharmacies.

The Chamber is grateful to the Government for responding to its requests on behalf of affected members and in turn, our members are very grateful to the numerous landlords who have continued to give their valued support over the last 16 months. The Chamber echoes the Government’s call for ‘private landlords to work closely with their tenants over the coming months and to consider extending varying discounts on a case by case basis’. The support which landlords have given has been instrumental in helping Chamber members’ businesses continue to operate during the pandemic and successive lockdowns. It is hoped that the forthcoming summer tourist season will generate significantly improved levels of trading so that further support will not be necessary.