Apply now: £12million coronavirus grants for businesses available
Businesses affected by local or nationally-imposed Covid-19 restrictions are urged to check whether they are eligible to apply for three new business grant programmes launched by Hackney Council today.
Over 3,500 businesses are expected to benefit from the £12million package of support being delivered by Hackney Council, which includes the following grants:
- Local restrictions support grant (open) for businesses in the hospitality, accommodation and leisure industries that have been severely affected by the introduction of Tier 2 restrictions in October and future Tier 2 or 3 restrictions.
- Local restrictions support grant (for closed businesses) addendum for businesses that were legally required to close during the recent national lockdown.
- Local restrictions support grant (sector) for businesses, like nightclubs, that have not been allowed to reopen at all since 23 March 2020.
Eligible businesses affected by October’s Tier 2 restrictions will receive between £33 - £75 per day for the period from 14 October to 4 November. Further funding will be available from 2 December once the national lockdown ends, for as long as London is in either a Tier 2 or Tier 3 category.
Businesses that were legally required to close between 5 November and 2 December for the national lockdown will receive a payment of between £1,334 and £3,000 depending on the rateable value of their premises.
Businesses that have not been allowed to reopen at all since March, such as nightclubs, and will not have this restriction lifted next week will receive between £667 - £1,500 for every 14 days they remain closed, backdated to 1 November.
Government funding for these grants has been allocated based on the Valuation Office Agency (VOA) records of businesses within these sectors who are registered for business rates and therefore these schemes are only open to business rate payers. However, the Council will launch a discretionary grant scheme in mid-December that will aim to support businesses who are not registered for business rates or are severely affected by the local and national restrictions.
Some businesses may be eligible to receive more than one type of grant although only one application is required as businesses will automatically be assessed for all three grants.
This additional £12million for our business community is sorely needed as this pernicious virus continues to disrupt our local economy. The Council has demonstrated its ability to deliver for businesses, the most recent Discretionary Business Grants scheme was allocated in full to local businesses and no money was returned to the Chancellor; the Council's priority is to distribute these additional funds as fairly and as quickly as possible.
But we should be under no misunderstanding, Hackney’s businesses are still disproportionately worse off compared to those outside of London. Government has decided to allocate the same amount per business across the UK irrespective of local circumstances and have favoured those with lower overhead costs. This approach comes at the expense of our local businesses.
The Council will aim to address some of this injustice by using the future discretionary grant but it will not be enough, we will continue to stand up for Hackney’s local businesses calling on the Government to act and support our businesses addressing the circumstances that they are confronted with.
The new grant programmes come at a time when the Council is dealing with the ongoing aftermath of a serious cyberattack by organised criminals which has affected a significant amount of key Council services including the Business Rates service. Many of these services play an essential role in rolling out the new business funding programmes but the distribution of these grants is a priority for the Council and new systems have been developed to process applications and make payments.