Chancellor of the Exchequer (): Following my announcement yesterday that the
government is providing £4.6 billion of UK-wide funding to
support hardest hit businesses, I am pleased to share further
details regarding these grants.
Throughout this crisis, our economic priority remains the same:
to protect jobs. We have already set out our economic package of
support for businesses over the Winter, including: monthly grants
for closed businesses worth up to £3,000 per month; 100% business
rates relief for all eligible retail, hospitality and leisure
premises in 2020/21; extending the furlough scheme to April;
extending the 100% government-backed COVID-19 lending schemes to
March; and providing further SEISS grants to support the
self-employed to April.
But given further national restrictions announced by the Prime
Minister on Monday that will prevent further spread of the virus,
the government will provide additional support to the most
affected businesses, worth £4.6 billion across the United
Kingdom.
All business premises in England which are legally required to
close, including Retail, Hospitality and Leisure, can claim a new
one-off grant of up to £9,000. The one-off additional grant each
business premises will receive depends on their rateable value.
- Businesses with a rateable value of £51,000 or over will
receive grants of £9,000
- Businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000
will receive grants of £6,000
- Businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or under will
receive grants of £4,000
This one-off grant is in addition to the existing monthly closed
grants of up to £3,000 per month that businesses continue to be
eligible for. These grants are worth over £1 billion in total per
month.
We expect over 600,000 business premises in England to benefit
from these grants. Businesses can receive multiple grants, as
they are eligible on a per premises basis. Local authorities will
receive the funding for the one-off grants next week, and we
encourage them to make payments to businesses as soon as
possible.
In addition to these one-off grants, we are making available
discretionary funds of £500m to local authorities in England to
enable them to support their local businesses. This builds on the
£1.1 billion discretionary funding (worth £20 per head of
population) which local authorities in England have already
received to support their local economies and help businesses
impacted.
This announcement also includes £729 million of funding for the
devolved administrations as part of the unprecedented upfront
funding guarantee. The total of the guarantee is reviewed
regularly to ensure it reflects all additional funding and was
most recently increased by £800 million to £16.8 billion on 24
December. The Government is likely to increase this shortly to
take into account any further expected increases in support in
England.
This support will help businesses get through this difficult
period through to the Spring. We will take further decisions
about our economic response to coronavirus and how best to
support the economy, businesses and jobs at the Budget on the 3rd
March.
