Consultations

We will place on this page, as many local and national consultations as we are sent. If a consultation is deemed to be very important we will send an email link to the site.

Click here for the latest weekly Consultation Bulletin from WCVA.

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Welsh Government’s relationship with the Third Sector under review

How the Welsh Government and the Third Sector work together in the future is the focus of a new consultation launched on 16th May by the Communities & Tackling Poverty Minister, Huw Lewis.

The consultation – entitled Continuity & Change - will ask for views on how the Welsh Government and the sector can work in partnership, especially in light of the current economic climate. It will also examine how voluntary and community groups in particular can best be supported in future.

The Executive Summary can be found here

       The Full Consultation document can be found here

An important element of the consultation is the role of the Third Sector Infrastructure Partnership.  This Partnership currently includes Wales Council for Voluntary Action (WCVA); County Voluntary Councils and Volunteer Centres. 

PAVS is the County Voluntary Council for Pembrokeshire and also runs the local volunteer centre, Volunteering Pembrokeshire.  We see this consultation as a good opportunity to take a close look at what we do and how we work with others at a local, regional and national level.  We will be issuing an on-line questionnaire in the very near future (printed versions available on request).  Your feedback will help us understand what we might need to do differently and better in future.

We hope you will also respond to the consultation, which will set the framework for the way that Welsh Government works with the third sector over the coming years.  There are lots of ways that you can take part in the consultation process: 

  • Book a place at one of the Welsh Government consultation events – the closest one is on Wednesday 29th May at the Welsh Government Offices in Penllergaer, Swansea from 1.30pm – 4.00pm
  • Come along to the PAVS open consultation event or to one of the focus group meetings that we will be organising around specific elements of the consultation  – more details to follow in June
  • Submit a written response to the consultation document, either online or by post – there are 22 consultation questions but you can choose to just answer the ones that matter to you most (deadline Thursday  8th August)
  • Send an e-mail to PAVS or just talk to one of our officers – we will be happy to include your views in our consultation response (deadline Friday 19th July)

You can access information about the consultation, including the relevant documents and details of the Welsh Government consultation events that you are invited to attend, via the Welsh Government website at -

http://wales.gov.uk/consultations/housingcommunity/welsh-government-third-sector-relationships/

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Welsh Government Consultation on Business Rate Relief for Charities, Social Enterprises and Credit Unions

As part of ongoing review of Business Rates Relief for Charities, Social Enterprises and Credit Unions, the Welsh Government have published a consultation document which sets out 10 recommendations including on business rate relief and the issue of ‘clustering’ of charity shops. The Welsh Government wants to receive views on the  recommendations. If they go ahead as proposed, there will be financial implications for charities in the high street.

The recommendations cover a range of issues including

*   zoning or limiting the number of charity shops in centres

*  involvement in Business Improvement Districts or similar local organisations

*  bringing long term empty property back into use

*  tax avoidance

*  diversity in the High Street

*  Rateable Value Thresholds

*  Future Rating List

*  Monitoring of New Goods Sales

However, key recommendations on rate relief are -

Recommendation 7 (detail) : "we recommend that when the economy picks up, consideration should be given to reducing the mandatory 80% rate relief as follows:

  • The full, mandatory 80% rate relief will be available on properties with a rateable value (RV) up to £12K (the current upper limit for Small Business Rate Relief). All charity shops will receive 80% rate relief on the first £12,000 of the RV.
  •  Charity rate relief will then be reduced from 80% to 50% on the next £24K of rateable value, i.e. up to a maximum RV of £36K. All charity shops will receive 50% rate relief on the next £24,000 of the RV.
  • For RVS in excess of £36K we recommend that the business rate relief falls to zero.

  Implementation of Recommendation 7:

• "For existing charity shops with an RV over £12K but under £36K, mandatory relief (for the amount that exceeds £12K RV) be reduced from 80% to 50% over a three year period – from say April 1st 2014 – in equal percentage increments per annum.

• For existing charity shops, with RVs above the upper RV limit of £36K the new zero rate relief (for the amount that exceeds £36K RV) will also be brought in over a three year period – from say April 1st 2014 - – in equal percentage increments per annum.

• For new charity shops we recommend that these new rate reliefs, if accepted, should be introduced with immediate effect.

 

The  Welsh Government would like views on the recommendations, for example 'are the new recommended rate reliefs relatively easy to adminster?' and 'Are there other incentives we should consider introducing to bring more vibrancy and diversity to the High Street?'.

The consultation document can be found via the following link Business rates relief for charities and social enterprises - Recommendations from an independent report to the Welsh Government, April 2013, WG

The responses to the consultation will inform how the Welsh Government takes this forward. The consultation will run for 8 weeks. The deadline for responses is the 28th June 2013 (this is an extension to the previous deadline)

PAVS will be providing a response to the consultation. If you would like to contribute to the response please provide your comments to Julie Kirk, Local Service Board Link Officer via julie.kirk@pavs.org.uk before the 18th June 2013.

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