New lockdown grants and further financial support for businesses

The news of rising numbers of COVID infections across the country and increased restrictions are a sobering start to the New Year. Last night’s announcement by the Prime Minister outlined a new national lockdown which will be reviewed by the government on 15th February.

Government support is crucial for the survival of many businesses in town centres. Following last night’s announcement of tighter restrictions in order to help control the virus, £4.6 billion in new lockdown grants has been announced by the Chancellor to support businesses and protect jobs.

The new range of financial support includes:

• One-off top up grants worth up to £9,000 per property for businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors
• £594 million discretionary fund also made available to support other impacted businesses

The new grants come in addition to the £1.1 billion further discretionary grant funding for Local Authorities, Local Restriction Support Grants worth up to £3,000 per month and the extension of the furlough scheme.

Business Restrictions Hardship Grant

This is a new £2m grant launched by Kingston Council, which will be available from early/mid January and is aimed at smaller independent businesses (with fewer than 50 employees). Read more about the Hardship Grant here.

Existing local restrictions support grants

Find the full details about the local restrictions support grants available from Kingston Council here. You can apply for the existing grants here.

Find full details on tier level business closure rules here.

For closed businesses

• 2nd National Lockdown Grant – for businesses required to close between 5 November and 2 December.
• Tier 3 and Tier 4 grants – for businesses required to close due to Tier 3 (from 16 December) and Tier 4 (from 20 December) restrictions.

For open businesses

• Tier 2 and Tier 3 Impact Grants – for some independent businesses that have been severely impacted due to the restrictions but are not required to close (17 October – 4 November 2020 and 3 December 2020 onwards).