Covid Business Support Grants
You may be aware that the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced a Restart Grant scheme in his Budget statement. These grants will be payable to non-essential retail, hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym businesses within the business rates system to help them get through to June 21. The Restart grants will be start to be paid by the Council from around mid-April. We do not anticipate having to invite applications from these businesses that have previously received a grant payment from the Council.
Somerset West and Taunton has been subject to the following Covid-19 restrictions since November 2020.
| Period | Number of days | Restriction | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 5 Nov to 1 Dec | 27 days | Second National Lockdown |
| 2 | 2 Dec to 25 Dec | 24 days | Tier 2 |
| 3 | 26 Dec to 30 Dec | 5 days | Tier 3 |
| 4 | 31 Dec to 4 Jan | 5 days | Tier 4 |
| 5 | 5 Jan onwards | Third National Lockdown |
The Government has provided the Council with funding for business support grant schemes for these periods, which the Council will administer.
So far we have paid out over £65m in Covid-19 business support grants. The grants are designed to help businesses meet their fixed business costs during periods of restrictions, when cashflow has been disrupted.
The grants are not loans and are therefore not repayable.
These grants focus on businesses which are directly affected by the particular restriction periods.
For each separate period of restriction there is a mandatory grant scheme and a discretionary grant scheme, each with their own eligibility criteria. These are summarised below:
| Mandatory Scheme | Discretionary Scheme | |
|---|---|---|
| Second National Lockdown |
Second National Lockdown Support Grant For businesses in the business rates system that were required by law to close |
Additional Restrictions Grant (Scheme no longer available for this period) |
| Tier 2 |
Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) – Tier 2 For businesses in the business rates system that were required by law to close during the period of Tier 2 restrictions. |
Local Restrictions Support Grant (Open) Tiers 2 and 3 Businesses in the accommodation, leisure and hospitality sectors, which are in the rates system, which are not required to close but have severely impacted as a result of these restrictions being imposed. |
| Tier 3 |
Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) – Tier 3 For businesses in the business rates system that were required by law to close during the period of Tier 3 restrictions. |
Local Restrictions Support Grant (Open) Tiers 2 and 3 Businesses in the accommodation, leisure and hospitality sectors, which are in the rates system, which are not required to close but have severely impacted as a result of these restrictions being imposed. |
| Tier 4 |
Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) – Addendum: Tier 4 For businesses in the business rates system that were required by law to close during the period of Tier 4 restrictions. |
Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) For businesses outside of the business rates system. Also for businesses within the business rates system that were not required to close during the period of Tier 4 restrictions. |
| Third National Lockdown |
Third National Lockdown Support Package For businesses in the business rates system that were required by law to close during the 3rd National Lockdown. For non-essential retail, hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym businesses in the business rates system. |
Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) For businesses outside of the business rates system. Also for businesses within the business rates system that were not required to close during the period of the Third National Lockdown. |
For businesses that have received a Covid-19 Business Support Grant from the Council since 5 November 2020
We will contact you by email if we think you are entitled to further grants. Depending on your e-mail security settings this email may go to your ‘Spam’ or’ junk’ folder if not to your inbox.
If your business has not received a Covid-19 Business Support Grant from the Council since 5 November 2020
Whether or not your business is within the business rates system, if you have not received a Covid grant payment from us since 5 November 2020 and would like to apply for a grant please complete the register of interest form below.
You will be asked to provide your bank details for us to use in order to make payment of any Covid business support grant to which you may be entitled. For all companies, partnerships and charities, this MUST be a business bank account and be in the name of the legal entity completing this form. We will not make payment into the personal bank accounts of company directors or to third party bank accounts.
From the information you provide, we will contact you by email to advise which COVID-19 Business Support Grants you may be entitled to. This will generally be between 7-10 days from when you submit your registration, however, we appreciate how important these grants are and will do everything we can to get in touch as quickly as possible.
The only grant schemes now open are The Local Restrictions Support Grant (as part of the Third National Lockdown Support Package for the period 16 Feb 2021 to 31 March 2021), and the Restart Grant Scheme.
The Additional Restrictions Grant is now closed for new applications. Any future reopening of this scheme is dependent on further funds being made available from central government.
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