New lockdown grants announced

Businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors will receive a one-off grant worth up to £9,000 following the Prime Minister's announcement of a new national lockdown in England to tackle the growing cases of Covid-19.

There is a one-off top up grant for retail, hospitality and leisure firms worth up to £9,000 per property to help businesses through to the Spring. A £594 million discretionary fund will also be made available to support other impacted businesses. The new grant is provided on a per-property basis, and is expected to help over 600,000 business properties, worth £4 billion in total across the UK.

These new one-off grants come in addition to other business support, including grants worth up to £3,000 per month for closed businesses, and up to £2,100 per month for impacted businesses once they reopen.

This is on top of the £1.1 billion further discretionary grant funding already made available to Local Authorities, Local Restriction Support Grants worth up to £3,000 a month, and the extension of the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme through to the end of April.

The one-off top-ups will be granted to closed businesses as follows:

• £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

Businesses should apply to their relevant Local Authorities for this grant funding. From previous experience, there is quite a variation in how quickly individual Local Authorities make funding available in their area, so it is important that business owners keep a watchful eye on when their relevant grant funding becomes available.

For further information, please do not hesitate to contact me or your local Thomas Westcott office.