COVID - Business Support Grants explained

19 January 2021

With ‘Lockdown 3’ now in effect for England, the Government have announcement additional funding available to support businesses who have been forced to close or are continuing to suffer as a result of Covid. This announcement from the Chancellor confirmed businesses within the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors are to receive a one-off grant worth up to £9,000.

Central Government have advised that the distribution of the funding available will be administered locally by the relevant Local Authorities and to date many of these Local Authorities are not as yet set up to process any applications.

To help you understand what’s available, we’ve attempted to summarise the current measures announced as follows:

  • ONE-OFF TOP UP GRANTS (CLOSED):

    • £4,000 for businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or under
    • £6,000 for businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000
    • £9,000 for businesses with a rateable value of over £51,000

    This is available to businesses that have been required to close for the current ‘Lockdown 3’ period.

    LOCAL RESTRICTIONS SUPPORT GRANT (CLOSED):

    Businesses that have been impacted by the 2nd lockdown period within an area designated Alert Level High (Tier 2) or Very High (Tier 3) and were mandated to close.

    LOCAL RESTRICTIONS SUPPORT GRANT (OPEN):

    Businesses that have been impacted by the 2nd lockdown period within an area designated Alert Level High (Tier 2) or Very High (Tier 3) and were not mandated to close but provide the majority of their services to business which have been mandated to close.

    ADDITIONAL RESTRICTIONS GRANT:

    Local Authorities have been allocated cash to support business in their local regions that have been required to close or been severely impacted by the new lockdown period.

For some of these support measures, the qualifying criteria is clear, but others less so and Local Authorities will have discretion on how to distribute the cash allocated for each fund. Generally, the level of support will be pegged against the Rateable Value (RV) of a business premises and similarly to the 2nd lockdown period, the grants are available to businesses with larger or more valuable properties that have an RV in excess of £51,000.

We expect some Local Authorities may automatically allocate some of the grants to businesses that are eligible, but as in the previous round of support many will require businesses to apply for the support and this will likely be via an online portal administered by each individual Local Authority. We’d urge all our clients to review any grants they may be eligible for and to make enquiries with the Local Authority in which you have a business premises and remember, you can make multiple claims if you have multiple business premises.

If you’d like support from the Property team, we can offer a cost effective service to help guide you through the process or manage any application processes on your behalf to ensure you maximise the support you’re eligible for, please get in touch on 01604 273782 if you’d like to discuss your options.

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