Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced £4.5 billion will be made available in new grants for businesses required to close due to the national lockdown restrictions.
The new one-off grants come in addition to billions of existing business support, including grants worth up to £3,000 for closed businesses, and up to £2,100 per month for impacted businesses once they reopen.
The government has also provided 100% business rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, £1.1 billion existing discretionary funding for Local Authorities, the furlough scheme now extended to April and 100% government backed loans, extended until March.
Retail, hospitality and leisure businesses required to close will be able to access this new financial support on a per property basis derived from the rateable value (RV): £4,000 for properties with an RV of £15,000 or under; £6,000 for properties with an RV between £15,000 and £51,000; £9,000 for properties with an RV of over £51,000.
Up to 600,000 businesses across the UK are eligible to apply for the new, one-off grants. Mr Sunak said: “This will help businesses to get through the months ahead – and crucially it will help sustain jobs, so workers can be ready to return when they are able to reopen”.
For convenience stores and other businesses that continue to trade a further £594m discretionary fund has also been made available. Retailers wishing to access the discretionary funding should “contact their local authorities”. If we receive more information about application processes and criteria for accessing this discretionary funding from central government we will circulate more details.
Additional funding has been allocated to devolved administrations to support “other businesses not eligible for the grants, that might be affected by the restrictions”.
the Scottish Government will receive £375 million; the Welsh Government will receive £227 million and the Northern Ireland Executive will receive £127 million. The devolved administrations have not yet announced how they will allocate the funding.
These announcements do not impact existing grant schemes.
