Ministers announce new grants for businesses affected by local lockdowns

The Government has announced that businesses in England that are required to shut because of local lockdowns will now be able to claim up to £1,500 per property every three weeks. This provides comes in addition to the existing loans, grants and tax breaks.

Businesses in England required to close due to local lockdowns or targeted restrictions will now be able to receive grants worth up to £1,500 every three weeks. To be eligible for the grant, a business must have been required to close due to local Covid 19 restrictions. The largest businesses will receive £1,500 every three weeks they are required to close and smaller businesses will receive £1,000.

Payments are triggered by a national decision to close businesses in a high incidence area. Each payment will be made for a three-week lockdown period and each new three-week lockdown period will trigger an additional payment.

Any businesses still closed at a national level (e.g. nightclubs) will not be eligible. If a business occupies premises with a rateable value less than £51,000 or occupies a property or part of a property subject to an annual rent or mortgage payment of less than £51,000, it will receive £1,000.

If a business occupies premises with a rateable value of exactly £51,000 or above or occupies a property or part of a property subject to an annual rent or mortgage payment of exactly £51,000 or above, it will receive £1,500.

Local authorities will also receive an additional 5% top up amount of business support funding to enable them to help other businesses affected by closures which may not be on the business rates list. Payments made to businesses from this discretionary fund can be any amount up to £1,500 and may be less than £1,000 in some cases.

Local authorities will be responsible for distributing the grants to businesses in circumstances where they are closed due to local interventions and further eligibility criteria may be determined by those local authorities.

As with other Covid business grants, local grants to closed businesses will be treated as taxable income.