Eligible businesses urged to apply for pandemic grant funding

Applications are currently open for the Local Restriction Grant Scheme, which launched shortly after lockdown.

The closing date is Friday, December 4, 2020.

North Kesteven District Council is distributing the grant and is urging businesses eligible - those required to close from November 5, 2020 and registered with Business Rates on or before 12.01am on that date - to apply now.

There are three levels of money awarded via the Local Restriction Grant Scheme:

* For businesses occupying a property appearing on the local rating list with a rateable Value (RV) of exactly £15,000 or less on November 5, 2020, a payment of £1,334 per four weeks of closure.

* For businesses occupying a property appearing on the local rating list with a rateable Value (RV) of more than £15,000 but less than £51,000 on November 5, 2020, a payment of £2,000 per four weeks of closure.

* For businesses occupying a property appearing on the local rating list with a rateable Value (RV) of exactly £51,000 or more on November 5, 2020, a payment of £3,000 per four weeks of closure.

Leader of North Kesteven District Council Coun Richard Wright said: “We’ve shared £394,500 of vital Local Restriction Grant funding between more than 260 local businesses in North Kesteven as of Monday this week, and more is to come as

we continue to process applications for the scheme.

“We’re pleased to give details now of a second scheme, ahead of schedule, of the Additional Restriction Grant which will assist a further pool of businesses in our district which have been required to close due to the pandemic.”

The new Additional Restriction Grant is live now, having been launched by North Kesteven District Council on Monday November 23 to catch some of the businesses that fall through the net with the other scheme.

It will help businesses which have been required to close from November 5, 2020 due to lockdown and which have fixed property costs or work from home, but were not required to be registered with Business Rates before this date.

The Additional Restriction Grant will see a flat rate grant awarded of £1,334 to eligible businesses. Payments will be made from Thursday November 26, 2020 and applications will close on Friday December 4, 2020.

“Businesses and staff have shown persistence and perseverance against Covid, including through two national lockdowns, and I’d like to thank them for showing such determination in these difficult times,” added Coun Wright.

“Our BusinessNK team continue to provide advice to all businesses affected by Covid, including via the help of our own Business Advisor. We’ll also be sharing further information on support for businesses impacted by lockdown as it becomes available.”

Information on the eligibility criteria for both the grants, the links to apply online and a list of all documents required to support applications can be found at businessnk.co.uk/covid-19-support

All eligible businesses are required to make new applications for the grants, even if they’ve applied for Covid grants previously in the year.

Further updates will be shared on the Business NK website, Twitter and its dedicated Facebook group.