Damien Moore MP urges Southport businesses to apply for new £9,000 lockdown grants

MP Damien Moore has urged Southport people to apply for new £9,000 grants which have been made available to help local businesses to get through the new national lockdown.

The grants have been announced today by Chancellor Rishi Sunak to help firms over the next few weeks as the country works together to combat growing Covid-19 cases.

The Chancellor has also provided £500million in discretionary funding to help local businesses.

Southport Conservative MP Damien Moore said: “Throughout this Covid pandemic, the Government’s economic priority has been to do all it can to protect jobs.

“A huge economic package is now in place to support businesses over the Winter, including monthly grants for closed businesses worth up to £3,000 per month, extending the furlough scheme to April and providing further SEISS grants to support the self-employed to April.

“We have to unite and do all we can to follow the guidance and defeat this virus, while Covid vaccinations are rolled out.

“While we do that it is important to provide essential financial support to our local businesses until we can emerge from this current lockdown.”

Following further national restrictions announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson on Monday (4 January) that will prevent further spread of the virus, today the Government has announced that it will provide additional support to the most affected businesses, worth £4.6 billion across the United Kingdom.

• A one-off grant for closed businesses in England of up to £9,000
• £500 million discretionary funding provided to English local authorities to support local businesses
• Barnett funding of £729 million
• This support will help businesses get through this difficult period through to the Spring. We will take further decisions about our economic response to coronavirus and how best to support the economy, businesses and jobs at the Budget on the 3rd March.

New one-off grant to support retail, hospitality and leisure businesses forced to closed

• Retail, hospitality and leisure business premises forced to close can claim a one-off grant of up to £9,000. The one-off additional grant each business premises will receive depends on their rateable value:
  • Businesses with a rateable value of £51,000 or above: £9,000
  • Businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000: £6,000
  • Businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or below: £4,000
• This one-off grant is in addition to the existing monthly closed grants of up to £3,000 per month that businesses continue to be eligible for. These grants are worth over £1 billion in total per month.
• The Government expects over 600,000 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure business premises in England to benefit from these grants.
• Businesses can receive multiple grants, as they are eligible on a per premises basis.
• Local authorities will receive the funding for these one-off grants next week, and are encouraged to make payments to businesses as soon as possible.

Additional discretionary funding for local authorities to support their local businesses

• Local Authorities (in England) will also be given an additional £500 million of discretionary funding to support their local businesses.
• This builds on (and will be allocated in the same way as) the £1.1 billion discretionary funding which local authorities in England have already received to support their local economies and help businesses impacted.