New lockdown grants to support businesses
Published: 8 January 2021
Derby at night
Following the announcement of the new national lockdown the Government have introduced a new series of support packages for businesses affected.
For retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, a one-off top-up grants worth up to £9,000 per property is to be issued to help businesses through to the Spring and an additional £594 million discretionary fund has also made available to support other impacted businesses nationally.
This funding is additional to the existing Local Restriction Support Grant Closed (LRSG) worth up to £3,000 every 28 days which is still open.
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
In order to make the process a simple as possible, Retail, hospitality and leisure businesses who received the Local Restriction Support Grant for closed businesses during the November lockdown will automatically be processed to receive a new one off grant of up to £9000 and a monthly/fortnightly LRSG Closed payment without having to re-apply. Businesses should expect email confirmation from derby.city.council.business.rates@notifications.service.gov.uk that they have been included but we are asking that they are patient and do not contact the Business Support team as this will delay them in processing payments for all businesses. Newly eligible businesses will be able to apply.
To further support Derby businesses, the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) discretionary scheme that was offered during the November lockdown will be re-opened for businesses that are not eligible for the LRSG scheme but have still been severely impacted by the new national lockdown. Businesses that received a grant from this scheme during the November lockdown do not need to apply again but will receive an email from Derby City Council in the coming days to confirm their payment. In addition, the online web application form for the ARG discretionary scheme will be re-opened next week for any businesses that have not yet applied.
The existing LRSG (Open) scheme will close to applications at 5.00pm on Friday 8th January.
Cllr Nicola Roulstone, Cabinet Member for Finance said:
Sadly, with the new variant taking hold and COVID-19 cases rising again the country is once again in a National lockdown and with it a new set of support measures announced by Government.
We appreciate that having such uncertainty can be very disconcerting but we remain committed to supporting all the businesses affected and are working hard to ensure new schemes are set up and payments processed as quickly as possible.