Thursday, October 22, 2020

News: Grants for Rotherham businesses forced to close

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Businesses forced to close due to South Yorkshire being moved into the the “Very High” COVID alert level will be able to access Government grants, and employees will also be in line for some support.

New restrictions will come into force from 00:01 on Saturday 24 October and cover all four local authority areas – Barnsley, Doncaster, Rotherham and Sheffield.

Pubs and bars will be closed unless they are serving "substantial" meals. Soft play centres, betting shops, casinos and amusement arcades are to close but leisure centres and gyms can remain open, however, classes are not to take place.

Rotherham Council, which administered the previous COVID grant scheme, confirmed in a statement that: "As part of the Tier 3 restrictions, businesses which have to close will be entitled to Government grants of up to £3,000 every four weeks, and staff unable to work at those businesses will be able access two thirds of their wages, up to a maximum of £2,100.

"Additional Government money will also be made available to local authorities and the detail of the further financial package is being worked on with the Government to support the local economy."

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The Government confirmed details of its Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG) in September. It supports businesses that were open as usual, providing services in person to customers from their business premises, but which were then required to close for at least three weeks due to local lockdown restrictions imposed by government.

It is for businesses that pay business rates on their premises. Local councils may at their discretion also provide funding for businesses that don't pay business rates.

The Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has also announced approved additional funding to support cash grants of up to £2,100 per month primarily for businesses in the hospitality, accommodation and leisure sector who may be adversely impacted by the restrictions in high-alert level areas. These grants will be available retrospectively for areas who have already been subject to restrictions, and come on top of higher levels of additional business support for Local Authorities moving into Tier 3.

Rotherham entered Tier 2 (high-alert) last week.

The government said it was providing additional funding to allow Local Authorities (LAs) to support businesses in high-alert level areas which are not legally closed, but which are severely impacted by the restrictions on socialising. The funding LAs will receive will be based on the number of hospitality, hotel, B&B, and leisure businesses in their area, who aren’t legally required to close but have been adversely affected by local restrictions nonetheless.

The total funding available to South Yorkshire agreed with Government for the new restrictions is £41m, including £30m to support the region's businesses, and £11m for local authorities to support public health measures such as Test and Trace to stop the spread of the virus.

Images: PHE

2 comments:

Ziggy,  October 22, 2020 at 12:25 PM  

Accepting to go into Tier 3 should come hand in hand with criteria to come out of it. As I see it we are currently at the peril of a Whitehall decision maker rather than set criteria to move between tiers. The Mayor and Councils should be held accountable for poor judgement if they don't have a benchmark of what is exactly required before the restrictions are removed (see Leicester and its never ending lockdown).

Anonymous,  October 22, 2020 at 4:43 PM  

What strange times we live in regional Mayors who nobody really wanted blackmailing the Government a footballer dictating Government policy. I can understand the SNP taking political advantage whose sole existence is an independent Scotland at any cost to Scotland,NI can spend all the money they want knowing the rest of the UK will bail them out
The Welsh Assembly tell me I can not visit Wales we are becoming the Federal UK with no one in charge How many of these new restrictions would actually stand up in a Law Court?

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