Growth grants for businesses

Since the easing of National Lockdown and COVID-19 restrictions began on 29th March, the government have continued to provide businesses in key sectors with ongoing support in the form of a range of funded grants in order to help them re-open safely.

Find out what you could be entitled to:

Restart Grant

The Restart Grant scheme is available from 1st April 2021 and supports businesses in the non-essential retail, hospitality and leisure, personal care and accommodation sectors with funding broken down into two sector strands.

Strand One: Supporting non-essential retail premises with a one-off grant payment in line with the following thresholds:

• Businesses with a rateable value of exactly £15,000 or under will receive a payment of £2,667
• Businesses with a rateable value over £15,000 and less than £51,000 will receive a payment of £4,000
• Businesses with a rateable value of exactly £51,000 or over will receive a payment of £6,000

Strand Two: Supporting hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym business premises with a one-off grant payment in line with the following thresholds:

• Businesses with a rateable value of exactly £15,000 or under will receive a payment of £8,000
• Businesses with a rateable value over £15,000 and less than £51,000 will receive a payment of £12,000
• Businesses with a rateable value of exactly £51,000 or over will receive a payment of £18,000

Who is eligible?

Your business may be eligible for a Restart Grant if it is:

• Based in England
• Rate-paying
• In the non-essential retail, hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care or gym sectors
• Trading on 1 April 2021

You cannot get funding if your business:

• Is in administration, insolvent or has been struck off the Companies House register
• Has exceeded the permitted subsidy allowance (see further down)

The new domestic subsidy allowance for the COVID-19 business support grants took effect on 4 March 2021. Applications made prior to that date are subject to the previous rules.

Additional Restrictions Grant – Round 5

The Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) supports businesses that are not covered by other grant schemes or where additional funding is needed. It support businesses that are severely impacted by restrictions that may or may not be in the business rates system. by providing local councils with grant funding.

Who is eligible?

The funding is expected to help out business who have been severely impacted by the restrictions. However, funding is at the discretion of the local council upon determination of the eligibility criteria.

This could include:

• Businesses which do not pay business rates
• Businesses that have not received wider grant support
• Businesses from all sectors that are severely impacted by restrictions

You cannot get funding if your business:

• Is in administration, insolvent or has been struck off the Companies House register
• You have exceeded the permitted subsidy allowance (see below).

Subsidy Allowance

The Restart Grant and the Additional Restrictions scheme are covered by 3 subsidy allowances:

• Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance – you’re allowed up to £335,000 (subject to exchange rates) over any period of 3 years
• COVID-19 Business Grant Allowance – you’re allowed up to £1,600,000
• COVID-19 Business Grant Special Allowance – if you have reached your limits under the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance and COVID-19 Business Grant Allowance, you may be able to access a further allowance of funding under these scheme rules of up to £9,000,000, provided certain conditions are met

Grants under these 3 allowances can be combined for a potential total allowance of up to £10,935,000 (subject to exchange rates).

How to apply

Application is made via your local council. Visit the GOV.UK website and enter your postcode to find out your local council.

Apply through your local council here:

• Adur and Worthing Councils
• Arun District Council
• Chichester District Council
• Crawley Borough Council
• Mid Sussex District Council
• Horsham District Council

Deadline for applications is 30th June 2021. Any applications received after this date will not be processed.

If you have any queries about any of the above please get in touch with a member of our Corporate Finance team on 01903 234094.