The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak announced this week that £4.6 billion new lockdown grants will be available for businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. Per the Chancellor announcement, these businesses will receive a one-off COVID-19 grant of £9,000.
Here is a quick review of the new Coronavirus support measures.
- A one-off grant of £9,000 will be available for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, per business property.
- The Government has also announced a discretionary fund of £594 million, made available for other types of businesses who may be in need for further support, due to the new national lockdown.
- An additional £1.1 billion discretionary grant funding is available for Local Councils. The Local Restriction Support Grants aim to help local businesses which were forced to close due to the recent Tier 2, 3, 4 restrictions and the current lockdown.
- Furthermore, it was recently announced that the Furlough Scheme will be extended until 30 April 2021 – Find out what are the Furlough Scheme eligibility requirements for UK employers.
Responces from UK business leaders
Measures announced by @RishiSunak will absolutely help & it's definitely sorely needed. But it isn't enough to help all of our businesses through what we know is now going to be a pretty bleak midwinter before emerge in spring.@RainNewtonSmith @CBI_Economics on @SkyNews pic.twitter.com/STsZemB3lX
— CBI (@CBItweets) January 6, 2021
📺BCC's Claire @Walker_Essex on @5_News calling for "a whole-year plan for business support so businesses know what's going to happen at the end of 2021, not just until the end of March". 👇 pic.twitter.com/ilVuNzDwoF
— BCC (@britishchambers) January 5, 2021
Reacting to the retail, hospitality and leisure grants, @MikeCherryFSB tells @SkyNews that while they are a lifeline, we run the risk of “wasting a lot of the support that’s been incredibly useful in getting companies through if we don’t put further support in”. Here’s more 👇🏽 pic.twitter.com/q5F151PzDx
— FSB (@fsb_policy) January 5, 2021