Following lockdown #3, Government has announced further business support grants today, 5th January 2021.
The new announcement today is (a) one off grants to businesses with business premises in the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Sector, see 2 below, and (b) extra Discretionary funding for Local Authorities – see 3 below.
The details on these new grants are sketchy, what we seem to have is:
1 – Local Restrictions Grants (closed) – for businesses with premises assessed to Business Rates, who are forced to close under Tier 2,3 or 4 restrictions.
- Rateable value £15k or less – £667/14 days or £1,334 28 days – NB at this level of RV you are probably not paying Business Rates due to Small Business Relief, but you still get the grant
- Rateable value over £15k and less than £51k – £1,000/14 days or £2,000 28 days
- Rateable value £51k or over – £1,500/14 days or £3,000 28 days
The 14 day / 28 day issue depends on whether we are in Tiers reviewed fortnightly, or Lockdowns reviewed less frequently.
Details – this scheme is a statutory scheme which has been in place since the autumn, administered by Local Authorities for Government
2 – One off Grants for Winter 2021 – this is the new announcement today, 5 January 2021. For businesses with premises assessed to Business Rates, who are forced to close under Tier 2,3 or 4 restrictions. It appears this is intended for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure sector, but whether other closed businesses will benefit isn’t clear.
- Rateable value £15k or less – £4,000 one off grant
- Rateable value over £15k and less than £51k – £6,000 one off grant
- Rateable value £51k or over – £9,000 one off grant
This is a one off grant in addition to the Local Restrictions Grant at (1) above.
Details – these are still sketchy – this scheme is a statutory scheme, administered by Local Authorities for Government
3 – Additional Restrictions Grant – for businesses not covered by other grant schemes or where extra support is needed.
These grants are at the discretion of Local Authorities, within a framework set by Government. This could cover:
- Businesses without business premises (or with business premises which are not subject to Business Rates)
- Open businesses which are severely impacted by Coronavirus restrictions, eg a wholesaler supplying Hospitality
Details – there are two subtly different schemes
Additional points:
- These grants are in addition to, and parallel with Furlough (CJRS) and Self Employed Grants (SEISS). For the statutory grants, 1 and 2 above, receipt of other grants isn’t relevant other than quite a high cap for overall state support (Eur200k, possible increase to Eur800k); however for the discretionary grant, 3 above, receipt of other grants may make you ineligible if these have covered the impact on your business.
- As usual the information on Government website is haphazard and poorly referenced. As these grants are Local Authority administered, see information from them
- E&OE on announcements today