The Government has today confirmed it will extend the BEAT COVID-19 rental discounts to the 31st May 2021, in respect of both Government owned premises and those leased or licensed by Private Landlords.

A statement continued: “HMGOG announced on the 9th April 2021 that the rental discounts would be extended to the 30th April 2021 and received immediate representations from the Gibraltar Chamber of Commerce calling for these discounts to be extended for the complete Quarter. Following a meeting earlier today between HMGOG and the Chamber at which these issues were discussed and representations made, Government has agreed to extend these measures for a further month to the end of May and will review the position in May with the Chamber of Commerce as to whether it requires to be further extended.

“Government is most grateful to all Private Sector landlords who have during this past year supported their call for rental discounts as a means of supporting local businesses in meeting their obligations at extremely challenging and difficult times. Landlords have helped to sustain their tenants businesses by providing these discounts thereby strengthening Gibraltar’s defence against the pandemic at a significant cost to themselves.”

The Chief Minister, Fabian Picardo, said: “I am most grateful to all of our landlords for their support at this most difficult time to our business community. We believe and hope that our business community will be enjoying better times in June as a result of the success of Operation Freedom and there will be no need for these discounts to continue any further. We have agreed with the Chamber that we will meet with them next month and revisit our progress before reaching any conclusion on this matter.”