The Chancellor has this morning announced £4.6bn in new lockdown grants to support businesses and protect jobs during this lockdown.

This new funding is in addition to the £1.1 billion discretionary grant funding for Local Authorities, Local Restriction Support Grants worth up to £3,000 a month and extension of furlough scheme

The cash is provided on a per-property basis to support businesses through the latest restrictions, and is expected to benefit over 600,000 business properties, worth £4 billion across all nations of the UK.

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.

This will help businesses to get through the months ahead – and crucially it will help sustain jobs, so workers can be ready to return when they are able to reopen.”

A further £594 million has been made available for Local Authorities and the Devolved Administrations to support other businesses not eligible for the grants that might be affected by the restrictions. To access this funding businesses should apply to their Local Authorities.

The new one-off grants come in addition to the existing support, which include grants of up to £3,000 for closed businesses, and up to £2,100 per month for impacted businesses once they reopen.

The government has also provided 100% business rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, £1.1 billion existing discretionary funding for Local Authorities, the furlough scheme now extended to April and 100% government backed loans, extended until March.

Further information

The one-off top-ups will be granted to closed businesses as follows:

Read the full government release HERE.  Access the KJG Coronavirus Hub HERE.

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