Derby City Council will launch two new grants for businesses affected in different ways by the new COVID alert level 'Very High' (Tier 3) or ‘High’ (Tier 2) restrictions on Thursday 17th December.
The current schemes operating, the Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG) and the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG), which have been in place through the national measures during November, have been extended until Wednesday 16th December. If you are eligible for support under these grants and have not yet applied then please apply for a grant.
Businesses who have already applied to the LRSG or the ARG are urged not to apply a second time but to wait until the new schemes are launched. Payments made through the new schemes will be backdated to cover from the launch of Tier 3 restrictions on Wednesday 2nd December.
Once the new schemes are launched, whilst Derby is in either Tier 3 or Tier 2, these two new grant schemes will be running to support businesses.
- The Local Restrictions Support Grant for Closed Businesses – for businesses that are required to be closed. You can see a list of businesses that have been forced to close here.
- The Local Restrictions Support Grant for Open Businesses – for businesses which are open but are being severely affected by the impact of Covid-19.
To help businesses determine which Grant to apply for, we are asking businesses to answer these three questions:
- Are you registered for business rates within Derby City?
- Has your business got a rateable value?
- Has your business been forced to close?
If the answer to all these questions is yes, then you should apply for the Local Restrictions Support Grant for Closed Businesses.
If the answer to at least one of these questions is no, but you have still been severely impacted by the local restrictions, then apply for the Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG) Open.
The government has provided additional funding for the LRSG (open) scheme to allow us to support hospitality, leisure and accommodation businesses which are open but severely impacted by the local restrictions from 2 December 2020. Businesses principally engaged in supplying food and beverages to these sectors which have been severely impacted by local restrictions are also eligible to apply.
Full details of the grants, application criteria and links to the application forms will be available on the Derby City Council Business Financial Support pages
Councillor Nicola Roulstone, Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement said:
We remain committed to the businesses of Derby and to ensure we can provide support where it’s needed. These grants are designed to meet the specific needs of different businesses, those who remain closed and those who are struggling.
Like all of you I’m heartened by news that a vaccine is almost ready to roll out and can assure you all that we will keeping fighting to support local businesses until we can return to a more familiar life.