At the budget last week, the Chancellor announced a £5 billion grant scheme for England to help high street businesses reopen after lockdown.
Around 700,000 businesses across the country will be eligible for the grant, including non-essential shops, salons, gyms and restaurants.
Businesses in the hospitality sector who are not due to open until Monday 17th May or Monday 21st June as part of the ‘roadmap’, could receive as much as £18,000. Non-essential retailers who are currently hoping to open on Monday 12th April, will be eligible for grants worth up to £6,000.
The grants will be paid by the Council but we are currently awaiting guidance from Government on how the scheme will operate. Details of how to access the grants will be announced as soon as possible.
Various other grant schemes which have been available under the various lockdowns and tier system are due to close to new applications from Wednesday 31st March. The current ‘Local Restrictions Support Grant’ (LRSG), which was initially designed to support businesses suffering reduced demand or forced to close during the tier restrictions, but then updated to cover the national restrictions that have been in place since January, is the main scheme affected.
Any qualifying businesses that are still yet to claim the LRSG, are urged to apply through the Council's business financial support pages.
The Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) which is running for businesses not eligible for the LRSG, will remain open.
A Derby City Council spokesperson said:
As we move through the roadmap towards what we all hope will be the full re-opening in June, we know that our fantastic businesses still need our support.
We will be ready to issue grants as soon as we are able to, once the guidelines have been issued by the Government.
This is also a last call to those businesses who, for whatever reason, may not have claimed support from the LRSG to which they are entitled before the scheme closes to new applicants.