Lockdown business grants update

Published: 25 November 2020

A Derby hackney carriage

Over 1000 businesses have applied for either the new Local Restrictions Support Grant or the Additional Restrictions Grant in the first 10 days of opening, and around 350 payments have already been issued.

In addition, Derby City Council has taken the decision to show proactive support for the city’s licensed hackney carriage and private minicab drivers with a one-off £250 grant for eligible self-employed drivers. Drivers are encouraged to apply using the ARG link below, where they will be asked to provide details of their driver and vehicle licenses, which both must be with Derby City Council, amongst other supporting information.

The schemes, which opened for applications on Thursday 12^th November, are there to support businesses who have been forced to close due to the national restrictions during November and those who have been severely impacted. There is still time for those who have not applied and to help businesses determine which grant to apply for, we are asking them 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, if not, but you have still been impacted by the new four-week lockdown, then apply for the Additional Restrictions Grant.

The Local Restrictions Support Grant is a mandatory grant for businesses that have a rateable value and that have been forced to close or stop their main business activity. For the four-week period of the national measures eligible businesses will receive one payment per property. The rate of payment for eligible businesses will be:

For properties with a rateable value of £15k or under, grants to be £1,334 per four weeks;
For properties with a rateable value of over £15k and below £51k, grants to be £2,000 per four weeks;
For properties with a rateable value of £51k or over, grants to be £3,000 per four weeks.

The Additional Restrictions Grant is a discretionary scheme for those businesses who have been severely impacted by the new national lockdown but do not have a rateable value or have not been forced to close. The payments available for eligible businesses will be:

For businesses that work from a shared workspace or do not own or rent their own business premises, grants to be £1,334 per four weeks;
For businesses that own or rent their own business premises, grants to be £2,000 per four weeks;
For businesses that own or rent their own business premises and are larger in size (based on headcount or total fixed cost base), grants to be £3,000 per four weeks.

As part of the application form, businesses will be required to explain the detrimental impact that the new national lockdown has had on their operations.

Information about current grants is in our business financial support section.

Councillor Nicola Roulstone, Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement said:

The team have been inundated with applications, it’s very positive we have been able to reach so many of those businesses in need of support

I am pleased we are now in a position to open up the ARG scheme to support our licensed hackney carriage and private minicab drivers. In addition to the 80% self employed income support scheme provided by the government we felt it was important to recognise the important role many have played in supporting the city’s infrastructure throughout the covid response.

Our teams are now working flat out to process these grants as quickly as possible and I’d like to thank them for their hard work and dedication.

For those who have applied, please be patient, there are a lot of applications to work through and some will be more straight forward than others. For those who have not yet applied, please do provide as much information as possible to make the process as smooth as possible.