A new one-off top-up grant for businesses in the leisure, hospitality, and retail sectors was announced by the Chancellor on 5 January. The scheme will award grants between £4,000 and £9,000 for eligible rate-paying businesses. Local authorities are still awaiting details of eligibility for this scheme and its administration. Recipients already in receipt of Current Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) that are eligible will receive the top-up grant automatically; there will be no need to make a separate allocation. Eligible businesses that have not applied to the LRSG (Closed) grant should do so through Fylde Council’s website.
The Additional Restrictions Grant Discretionary Award scheme aims to support small local businesses not eligible for the LRSG (Closed) scheme because they have not been mandated to close by the regulations, or do not have a business rates account. The scheme has one-off grants between £1,000 and £3,000, for small businesses, organisations or enterprises that are a priority in the Fylde economy and have been most adversely impacted by the COVID restrictions and measures. Funds available for ARG grants are limited and the Council aims to support as many organisations as possible. The ARG Discretionary Award scheme will reopen to new applicants on Thursday 14 January in response to additional funding made available. Previous applicants to the ARG in November and December 2020 do not need to re-apply; the original application details will be used to assess a further award. The deadline for new applications is Friday 12 February 2021 at 4pm.
Cllr Karen Buckley, Leader of Fylde Council said: “Every effort is being made to pay as many grants to eligible applicants as quickly as possible. It is important that every local business gets the support required to come back strong after the pandemic. The ARG discretionary scheme offers the opportunity to target small businesses and organisations that are vital and unique to the Fylde economy but are not eligible for the LRSG or top-up payments. The objective is to award as much grant to as many businesses as possible.”
Full details of the eligibility criteria and conditions of all the available grant schemes are published on the Council’s webpage here and are updated as guidance is received from Government.
