Summary of the most relevant grants announced today
Today (21/12/21) the UK Government announced a new package of support for the hospitality sector. The items that are most important to our clients are:
- Additional Restrictions Grant: One-off grants of up to £6,000 per premise for businesses in the hospitality and leisure sector
- Discretionary funding: discretionary funding to support other businesses
- Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme: Statutory Sick Pay for Covid-related absences paid for by the Government for small and medium-sized employers across the UK
You can read more about this here and here
Additional Restrictions Grant
Hospitality (defined as accommodation, food & beverage services) and leisure premises can benefit from the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG). Recipients must be solvent businesses and ratepayers in the hospitality or leisure sector. For example, a pub; hotel; restaurant; bar; cinema; or amusement park. Grants are per premises and depend on the value of each premise, according to the table below.
| Rateable Value | £0-15k | £15-51k | over £51k |
| Value of grant available | £2.7k | £4k | £6k |
It is not yet specified how to apply for this scheme.
Discretionary funding
The Additional Restrictions Grant can be topped up at the discretion of the Local Authority. This will be available to other businesses, such as those that supply the hospitality and leisure sectors. Again, it is not yet specified how to apply for this scheme.
Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme
The government is also reintroducing the Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme (SSPRS). This will help small and medium-sized employers (those with less than 250 employees) by reimbursing them for the cost of Statutory Sick Pay for Covid-related absences, for up to 2 weeks per employee. Firms will be eligible for the scheme from today (21/12/21) and they will be able to make claims retrospectively from mid-January. In the past to benefit from this grant the employee needed to be off work for at least four days as a result of Covid. It is not yet specified how to apply for this scheme, however, it will probably be through a portal similar to that used for the job retention scheme.
Other measures
The Government notes that these additional measures are in addition to the following:
- Business rates relief: most businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors are entitled to a 75% reduction in their business rates bill for the current financial year and a new 50% reduction for the next financial year
- Reduced rate of VAT: There is a reduced rate of VAT (12.5% ) for hospitality and tourism, which extends to 31 March 2022
- Covid Additional Relief Fund: This applies to businesses that have not previously had business rates support
- Eviction protection: Businesses are protected from eviction if they are behind on rent on their premises until March 2022
- Recovery Loan Scheme: Government backed loans.
- Bounce Back Loan repayment flexibility: borrowers have the option to take a 6 month repayment holiday, three 6 month interest only periods or extend their loan to 10 years
If you would like to discuss this with one of our team please contact us.
Summary of the most relevant grants announced today Tod […]