The announcement of a third period of Lockdown in England to help battle the spread of Covid-19 and the new variant has come as a sad hit to many operators in the leisure and hospitality sectors, many whom have been unable to trade for many months.
Once again Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has stepped in to announce grants worth up to £9,000 for leisure, hospitality and retail businesses hit by the new lockdown. The one-off payment is expected to benefit more than 600,000 business properties across the whole UK, at a total cost of £4 billion, and has been welcomed with open arms by industry leaders and operators.
Grants will be provided to firms on a per-property basis, as follows:
This comes in addition to £1.1 billion further discretionary grant funding for Local Authorities, Local Restriction Support Grants worth up to £3,000 a month and extension of furlough scheme.
This move by the Chancellor has been in response to appeals from businesses to help ensure operators have cash-flow to survive through this new lockdown which is due to remain until 22 February 2021 as a minimum.
Most crucially it will help to sustain jobs so that workers can readily return to work as soon as restrictions are lifted.
Further information can be obtained direct from the Gov.co.uk website.