UPDATED: Rishi Sunak has announced a one-off £9000 lockdown grant per property for businesses in retail, hospitality and leisure.
This is to support businesses and protect jobs following the announcement of a third national lockdown by the prime minister last night. It is expected this third national lockdown will last until March.
How £9000 lockdown grant works
- £4,000 for businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or under
- £6,000 for businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000
- £9,000 for businesses with a rateable value of over £51,000
The Treasury has also announced a further £594m discretionary fund to support to support other businesses not eligible for the grants, which might be affected by the national lockdown.
In total, £4.6bn worth of new lockdown grants have been made available.
And this comes on top of another £1.1bn of further discretionary funding for local authorities, local business shutdown grants worth up to £3,000 a month and extending the furlough scheme until the end of April.
The cash will be issued on a per-property basis to support businesses through the national lockdown, and is expected to benefit over 600,000 business properties, totalling £4bn in grants across Britain.
Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “The new strain of the virus presents us all with a huge challenge – and whilst the vaccine is being rolled out, we have needed to tighten restrictions further.
“Throughout the pandemic we’ve taken swift action to protect lives and livelihoods and today we’re announcing a further cash injection to support businesses and jobs until the spring.”
How to apply for the £9000 lockdown grant
All businesses need to apply for a grant through their local authorities. The government is giving the new funds to councils to distribute to businesses large and small, as it did back in November during the second national lockdown.
You can find the right local authority for your application here
What information you need to supply for your £9000 lockdown grant
Small business owners will need to supply the following information:
- A passport or driving licence
- Business rates account number
- VAT registration number
- Company registration number
- Unique taxpayer reference (UTR)
- Copies of business account bank statements
Further reading
Small business national lockdown – what support is available?
