New lockdown grants available to support businesses and protect jobs
05 January 2021
The Chancellor has announced that one-off top up grants for retail, hospitality, and leisure businesses worth up to £9,000 per property to help businesses through to the Spring will be made available.
The £594 million discretionary fund will also be made available to support other impacted businesses. It comes in addition to the £1.1 billion grant funding for Local Authorities, Local Restriction Support Grants worth up to £3,000 a month, as well as the extension of the furlough scheme to the end of April.
This follows the Prime Minister’s announcement last night that these businesses will be closed until at least February half-term to help control the virus, and, together with the wide range of existing support, will provide them with certainty through the Spring period.
The cash is provided on a per-property basis to support businesses through the latest restrictions, and is expected to benefit over 600,000 business properties, worth £4 billion in total across all nations of the UK.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said:
The new strain of the virus presents us all with a huge challenge - and whilst the vaccine is being rolled out, we have needed to tighten restrictions further.
Throughout the pandemic we’ve taken swift action to protect lives and livelihoods and today we’re announcing a further cash injection to support businesses and jobs until the Spring.
This will help businesses to get through the months ahead – and crucially it will help sustain jobs, so workers can be ready to return when they are able to reopen.
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