Support and grants available to businesses during lockdown

Businesses forced to close, which are registered for Business Rates, will receive grants worth up to £3,000 per month under the Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG).

Businesses need to have a rateable value and be registered for business rates to receive the grant.

These businesses will be eligible for the following:

• For properties with a rateable value of £15k or under, grants to be £1,334 per four weeks
• For properties with a rateable value of between £15k-£51k grants to be £2,000 per four weeks
• For properties with a rateable value of £51k or over grants to be £3,000 per four weeks

Councillor Daren Hale, portfolio holder for investment and regeneration, said: “These are difficult and challenging times for many businesses, especially those in sectors such as leisure, retail and hospitality.

“The council is committed to ensuring the financial support available reaches these businesses as quickly as possible, and I can assure people that officers have been working flat-out to ensure we have the most efficient structure in place to do this.

“There will be information on Hull City Council’s website, and I urge any business interested in finding out more to make this their first port of call. If they need further information, they should contact our business support team.”

Local Authorities are also being given funding, additional to the business rates grants above, to implement an Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG). This will be a single allocation based on £20 per head of population for local authorities to use to run a discretionary grant scheme. These can be paid to businesses severely impacted, rather than closed, and businesses forced to close but which may not have a business rates account and are therefore ineligible for the LRSG.

Government guidance on this newly announced scheme is awaited, however preparations are well under way to ensure they address local needs and priorities.

Hull City Council is ensuring that businesses will be able to apply for both these grants as quickly as possible. The council will make further information, and details of how to apply, available in due course.

This information will be made available on Hull City Council’s dedicated Covid-19 webpage for businesses.

For enquiries about the above schemes and other help and support, the Council’s business support team can be contacted via email at business.support@hullcc.gov.uk

For advice and guidance on whether a business needs to close, or for advice around coronavirus compliance, visit www.gov.uk

For further advice and guidance on whether a business needs to close, any other restrictions on business trading during this time and how to ensure a business is COVID-19 secure, Hull City Council’s Public Protection team can be contacted on FoodandHealth&Safety@hullcc.gov.uk