Debate contribution: Rating System: High Street Businesses

Debate contribution by Mr Keith Buchanan on 28 April 2026.

MLA: Mr Keith Buchanan
Party at the time: Democratic Unionist Party
Date: 28 April 2026
Type: Debate contribution
Business: Oral Answers to Questions
Heading: Rating System: High Street Businesses
Assembly identifier: Official Report component 5509971

Text

Thank you, Minister. Some towns such as Magherafelt have several new and emerging businesses. On Boxing Day alone, I could have got my hair cut — not that I have much — at two places within a stone's throw of each other. The demand was that great that those businesses were open on Boxing Day, which rings alarm bells. I appreciate that that is not a rating issue, but it is an alarming thing in a town. What else can you do for businesses, Minister? I appreciate that we have the online world, but what else can you as Finance Minister do to assist those struggling businesses? They see those other businesses — I am not labelling all hairdressing businesses as fraudulent — as sending out a serious signal in a town.

132 words. Text as published by the Northern Ireland Assembly.

Part of an exchange

This follow-up belongs to: Topical question AQT 2297/22-27.

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Not analysed

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