Budget 2021 - business rates and restart grants

In his budget, the chancellor re-iterated his objective of supporting those businesses which had been most affected by coronavirus restrictions.

Since April 2020, all businesses in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors have been given a business rates holiday. Whilst this has had no impact on the smallest businesses that do not pay business rates, it has been a very valuable support to businesses that would otherwise have had to pay out business rate whilst receiving no income because of their enforced closure.

This 100% relief from business rates will continue until 30^th June 2021, thereafter, until 31^st March 2022 qualifying businesses that were closed on 5^th January 2021 will receive a 66% reduction in their business rates with a cap of £2 million per business. Other qualifying businesses will be eligible for relief of up to £105,000 per business again based on a 66% reduction in their business rates.

In addition, the government will also provide “restart grants” on a per premises basis. These will be worth up to £6,000 for non-essential retail businesses  and up to £18,000 for hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym businesses. These will once again be administered by local authorities which are also being given additional funding that they can use on a discretionary basis.

The above measures once again do not directly address those businesses that are run from domestic premises or those that operate from shared premises. However those businesses should look to apply under the discretionary scheme.

For a more detailed analysis of specific areas of the Budget please see our specific blogs as they are released over the coming days or join us for our FREE post Budget webinar tomorrow afternoon.