Further COVID Support Announced
The Government has announced additional support measures as cases of the Omicron variant of COVID-19 surge. These are primarily aimed towards the Hospitality and Leisure industries, where businesses would traditionally be in the midst of their busiest trading period.
Hospitality and Leisure Grants
Around 200,000 businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors in England will be eligible for one-off grants of up to £6,000 per location. These will come from local authorities, so watch their websites for more details.
Additional Restrictions Grants
Local authorities will also receive £100million for discretionary grants for businesses that are hardest hit by the latest restrictions, but who are not part of the hospitality and leisure industries. These could be suppliers to the industry, for example.
These amounts will be discretionary, so if you feel you should be entitled to claim, we’d recommend you contact your local authority to find out what criteria they will be using and how to apply.
Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme
This scheme has been reintroduced, and will reimburse employers with less than 250 employees. It will repay them for the statutory sick pay for Covid-related absences of up to two weeks for each employee. The scheme will restart on the 21st December 2021; claims can be made from mid-January 2022.
Cultural Recovery Fund
Further funding of £30million will be available for theatres, museums and orchestras. Many have had to close as a direct result of so many cases of the Omicron variant. This support will be available until March 2022.
We will of course keep you posted if any further announcements are made, and once we know more about these schemes.
You can see the Government announcement here.
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