Businesses that can be flexible about their location may wish to consider establishing in an enterprise zone. Enterprise zones provide several advantages to local enterprises, including tax breaks, lower business rates, and simplified application processes for building permits. What they are and where to locate them are detailed below.
What is a business (enterprise) zone?
Small areas in the United Kingdom are designated as “enterprise zones” in order to entice business investment and expansion. Accordingly, there are a variety of financial and non-financial incentives available to small enterprises locate inside an enterprise zone.
In all, 48 areas throughout the UK have been chosen to participate in the program. For the first five years of operation in these zones, new enterprises may take advantage of a variety of incentives, including reduced business rates, tax breaks, and a streamlined application procedure for obtaining a planning permit.
After the first 24 zones were established in 2012, the government added another 24 in 2016 and 2017. The goal is to stimulate regional economies by lending a hand to newly established and expanding firms.
What kinds of tax breaks and other incentives are available to companies?
Once you have gone through the firm name registration process, you may be eligible for some or all of the following incentives if your firm is located in the Enterprise Zone:
- For commercial properties, this might take the form of a reduction in rates or, alternatively, a total waiver of charges. Over a five-year period, it might save your company up to £275,000 in operating expenses.
- Financial incentives: In eight designated areas, businesses may write off 100% of their capital expenditures against their taxable income, providing a welcome boost to their bottom lines.
- Adequate preparation – Obtaining authorization to build inside these zones is substantially simpler.
You may get either the business rates advantage OR the tax relief benefit in addition to the planning approval help, but not both.
Where in the UK can people find these entrepreneurship zones?
Business districts may be found in urban areas of England, Wales, and Scotland. As of right now, Coleraine is home to the sole business zone in all of Northern Ireland.
Business districts in England
One of the new 24 zones in England requires businesses to establish themselves there by March 2021 or 2022. Contact the relevant authorities in the area you’re interested in settling in to find out whether the incentives you were promised when you first heard about the zones are still being offered. Locating a business zone in England is easy with the aid of the enterprise zones website.
Welsh and Scottish business districts
Wales has eight designated enterprise zones where businesses may thrive; this page can help you locate the one closest to you.
There are 16 such areas or zones in Scotland. Business districts in your region might be located here.
There are several advantages to establishing a company in a designated industrial zone.
There are several advantages to locating your firm in an enterprise zone, beyond the obvious cash gains and strategic possibilities.
To begin, you’d be settling down in a promising new neighborhood, one that is poised to see a quick inflow of residents as a result of an increase in the number of available employment in the region. This same factor also means you may be able to attract more formidable talent.
Depending on the region’s growth, commercial property prices may be cheaper, enabling you to expand. When paired with reduced rates, this may be considerable. Because most are in cities, you may set up shop closer to the action than you imagined feasible, which should increase passing commerce and speed up operations. Finally, efforts are being made to strengthen infrastructure in these places, giving your organization stable connectivity.
If you are having difficulty starting a new firm, registering its name, or obtaining permits such as EMI electronic money, you can turn to Fintech Harbor Consulting.
