New Coronavirus Business Support Grants
On Tuesday 21st December, the Government announced further funding for businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors most affected by the Omicron variant.
As we explained then, these grants are being distributed through loan authorities, who need to organise their own processes before they can distribute funds. The Christmas closures are likely to have delayed the design of those processes, but we have now received the following from Central Bedfordshire Council, as follows:
‘We are waiting for further information from Government on the distribution of these grants and as soon as this is available, we will distribute funding to eligible businesses.
On Wednesday 15 December, the Government published guidance for its Covid-19 Additional Relief Fund (CARF) providing additional business rates relief. The Government has allocated us over £5.3 million and we are working through the detail to understand the number of businesses we can support, in which sectors and how much they will receive.
We are also looking at how to support businesses affected by the spread of the Omicron variant by using the remaining Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) scheme funding.
There are no business grant schemes open for applications, but we will publish more advice and guidance in the New Year, once the Government has provided full guidance on the schemes. You can read more about the Government announcement on the GOV.UK website and we advise businesses to sign up for our email alerts on any new grant schemes. ‘
As with earlier local authority grants, the best places to keep an eye on are the relevant local authority websites. These are the places where announcements will be made. As Central Beds have recommended though, it’s also well worth getting onto any mailing lists that you can too.
If you find out that your local authority is opening their application process, please let me know; we have lots of clients in diverse locations so we can’t watch all but it would be great to share news where we can!
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