PUBS, petrol stations and food stores could be given 100 per cent rate relief in rural areas of the Malvern Hills district.

Malvern Hills District Council already has the power to grant rural rate relief of up to 50 per cent to post offices and general stores under a scheme set up to help struggling village shops.

The remaining 50 per cent of the rates for these businesses is met by the Government.

But now that scheme has been extended to include pubs and petrol stations with rateable values of £9,000 or less and food stores, which includes cafes and restaurants, with a rateable value of £6,000 or less.

The cost to the Malvern council taxpayer of extending the scheme would be £5,750, with the Government footing the £40,250 balance.

Before Malvern Hills District Council agrees to foot the bill, it needs to work out whether it can afford to help the area's rural businesses.

There are three pubs, six petrol stations and 13 food stores entitled to the extended rate relief in the area.

Although they will qualify for 50 per cent mandatory rate relief, there is no budget provision at MHDC at present to award discretionary relief of up to a further 50 per cent.

At a meeting of the council's executive board, Coun Tom Wells said they accepted that the last few months had been a struggle for many rural businesses.

"This would be a good message from the district council for its tangible support in getting these businesses back on their feet again," he said.

Raymond Biggs, owner of Welland Post Office, has benefited from the rural relief scheme since 1998 and said it was a "tremendous help".

"It might be rather a broad statement to say we could never have survived without this scheme but without it we definitely would have struggled," he said.

Mr Biggs said he welcomed the extension to other businesses, as long as it didn't "water down the pot".

The executive board of MHDC will be meeting in July to discuss how much discretionary rate relief it is prepared to grant to businesses under the extended scheme.