Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced new support for businesses hit by fresh lockdowns. Support includes one-off top up grants for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses worth up to £9,000 per property to help businesses through to the spring.
The Treasury says that the grants will be offered on a per-property basis, and is expected to help 600,000 sites. The total cost is expected to be around £4bn.
A £594m discretionary fund also made available to support other impacted businesses.
The funds will be made available via local authorities and the devolved administrations to support businesses not eligible for the grants, but might be affected by the restrictions. Businesses should apply to their local authorities.
“The new strain of the virus presents us all with a huge challenge — and whilst the vaccine is being rolled out, we have needed to tighten restrictions further,” said Sunak as part of the announcement on 5 January.
“Throughout the pandemic we’ve taken swift action to protect lives and livelihoods and today we are announcing a further cash injection to support businesses and jobs until the spring.
“This will help businesses to get through the months ahead – and crucially it will help sustain jobs, so workers can be ready to return when they are able to reopen.”
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