The latest lock down announced this week has led to a further update in government support for businesses in the new lockdown. This also applies to charities and not for profits if they meet the criteria.
The first thing to check is whether your business is now eligible for any of the pre-existing support that they perhaps weren’t before. For example if staff are taking leave to home educate or you face a further drop in demand you may want to use the furlough scheme.
This blog was written on 6th Janaury 2021, please make sure you check the latest government updates
Sector specific grants
Some specific additional grants have also been made available for businesses in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors (ie sectors required to close). These will be based on the rateable value of the property occupied and paid on a per property based:
- £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
Discretionary grants
In addition an additional figure of £594m has been made available to Local Authorities in England (separate schemes will apply in the other UK nations) as a discretionary fund. The details of how this will be paid will depend on your local authority, so make sure you keep in touch with them but we can expect support for businesses in the new lockdown in many places to be similar to previous schemes.
The self employed
A further grant had already been announced for those self-employed who were eligible for the SEISS scheme, although the amount has not yet been announced.
As with previous lockdowns many small business owners and self employed people have been outside the scope of this support and at the time of writing this has not changed. However, some owner-directors who previously were unable to access the furlough scheme may now find it is possible to access this.
Further information
We share regular updates for charities and small businesses in our monthly emails newsletters, which you can sign up to for Free
Read about the existing support for small businesses and charities here