New measures to support businesses during lockdown have been opened today.

For retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, a one-off top-up grant worth up to £9,000 per property is available to help businesses through to the Spring which is offered in addition to the Local Restriction Support Grant (LRSG) for Closed businesses. A new Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) discretionary scheme has also opened.

Businesses who had previously successfully applied for the LRSG Closed scheme, which is worth up to £3,000 every 28 days, during the November lockdown should by now have received confirmation from the Council that they have been automatically included in the new scheme and therefore do not need to apply again.  This includes access to the one-off top-up grant.

Those businesses who have not been contacted or did not receive the payment in November but can answer yes to the following questions

  • Are you registered for business rates within Derby City? 
  • Has your business got a rateable value?
  • Has your business been forced to close?     

are invited to apply here for the LRSG for Closed Businesses and the one-off grant

Similarly, those businesses who received a payment through the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) discretionary scheme during the November lockdown, should by now have received confirmation from the Council that they have been automatically included in the new scheme and therefore do not need to apply again.

The ARG scheme is open to businesses that are not eligible for the LRSG scheme but have still been severely impacted by the new national lockdown. Those businesses who have not been contacted or did not receive the payment in November but believe they are eligible for support can apply here for the ARG scheme.

Full details of all the schemes are available on the Business Financial Support pages of the Council website

Cllr Nicola Roulstone, Cabinet Member for Finance said:

With the increase in cases looking ever more serious at the current time we must all play our part in defeating this terrible virus.

We know how difficult that is for our many fantastic businesses around the city who have been trying so hard to get through this crisis.

We appreciate this additional funding from the Government and will do our upmost to ensure new applications are dealt with and payments processed as quickly as possible.