New lockdown top-up grants now available to Derby firms

New lockdown top-up grants for the city’s retail, hospitality and leisure businesses are now available, according to Derby City Council.

The Government recently announced that one-off grants, worth up to £9,000 per property, would be issued to help businesses through to the spring.

An additional £594 million discretionary fund has also been made available to support other impacted businesses nationally.

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

• £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

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In order to make the process a simple as possible, the city council said that retail, hospitality and leisure businesses who received the Local Restriction Support Grant for closed businesses during the November lockdown will automatically be processed to receive the new one-off grant without having to re-apply.

Businesses should expect an e-mail confirmation from the council soon. Newly eligible businesses are encouraged to apply.

To further support Derby businesses, the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) discretionary scheme, which was offered during the November lockdown, will be re-opened.

Businesses that received a grant from this scheme during the November lockdown do not need to apply again and will be sent an e-mail from the city council.

The online web application form for the ARG discretionary scheme will be re-open this week for any businesses which have not yet applied.

Councillor Nicola Roulstone, the city council’s cabinet member for finance, said: “Sadly, with the new variant taking hold and Covid-19 cases rising again the country is once again in a national lockdown and with it a new set of support measures announced by government.

“We appreciate that having such uncertainty can be very disconcerting but we remain committed to supporting all the businesses affected and are working hard to ensure new schemes are set up and payments processed as quickly as possible.”