Hull and Humber Chamber of Commerce

GOVERNMENT grants are being made available in North East Lincolnshire to help around 3000 businesses get through the COVID-19 emergency.

These grants have been announced by government in the last few days, with guidance on how to manage these issued on 23 March. And now local businesses are being invited to submit their information in order to access the grants.

A simple online form needs to be submitted in the first instance – available on www.nelincs.gov.uk/coronavirus - in the “Business grants and support” section. The Council will then check eligibility and distribute grants as soon as it possibly can.

Measures announced by government so far include:

100% Business rate relief for all businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors for 2020/21 and 100% Business rate relief for all non-Local Authority child care providers for 2020/21. For these, new bills will be issued to businesses as soon as possible. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/business-rates-retail-discount-guidance
Grants of up to £25,000 for businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors with rateable values between £15,000 and £51,000. Grants of £10,000 for all businesses in receipt of Small Business rate relief or Rural Rate relief. These grants will not need to be paid back. https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-covid-19-guidance-on-business-support-grant-funding
Full list of support from government and advice to businesses including information about the wage subsidy https://www.businesssupport.gov.uk/coronavirus-business-support/

Additionally, for larger businesses, the Government has introduced a guaranteed loan scheme for any small or medium sized business (with turnover of no more than £41M) that needs access to cash to help with immediate business costs. The scheme will offer loans of up to £5Million, with no interest due in the first 6 months. Support for larger firms will be available through the COVID-19 Corporate Financing Facility. To access these facilities, businesses should contact banks and lenders.

Cllr Philip Jackson, leader of North East Lincolnshire Council, said: “In these unprecedented times, we need to help as many organisations as we can. We are actively contacting businesses to let them know how they may be able to benefit from this support. As a council, we are here to support our residents and businesses, and we’ll process these grants as soon as practically possible to make sure that businesses have the money that government has made available.

“In the meantime, please bear with us as we process these grants as there are several thousand businesses that are likely to be eligible. However, you can rest assured, we are diverting resources to ensure this task is completed as quickly as is possible and would ask that you try and avoid contacting us for updates so we can focus on getting the money to eligible businesses.”

Other sources of business advice: