Welcome to our latest Policy Update. In these updates, The Entrepreneurs Network focuses on recent policy development and sets out (nearly) everything an entrepreneur needs to know about the topic. If you’re joining us for the first time, you can read our past updates here.

Last night, the country was placed into a third national lockdown until at least February half-term. It goes without saying that the next few months will be extremely tough for businesses up and down the country with tough restrictions on retail and hospitality.

Today, Rishi Sunak has unveiled £4bn worth of additional spending to mitigate the impact of lockdown on businesses. This is on top of the Job Retention Scheme (Furlough), Bounce Back loans and 100% business rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses.

In this update we will run through the new top-up grants announced today.

Top-up grants

Cash will be provided to businesses on a per-property basis (i.e. a business with five properties can receive five grants) with the level of grant funding available determined by your property’s rateable value.

Businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or under will receive a grant worth £4,000.
Businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000 will receive a grant worth £6,000.
Businesses with a rateable value of £51,000 and over will receive a grant worth £9,000.

The grants will be provided by local councils and as with the initial grants given during the first lockdown, they should contact you.

Discretionary Fund

Alongside the top up grants, businesses who are not eligible, such as those who sublet or are in co-working spaces, will be able to apply to a pot of £594 million in funding to local councils for discretionary support.

To have a chance at accessing this funding you should contact your council directly.

For more information about all the schemes in place check out, you can read the full announcement on the Gov.UK website. Our friends at Coadec have also put together a helpful summary of all the support available.

As ever with the pandemic, policy is rapidly evolving. Experience suggests that further support may be announced in the coming weeks as the Government works with business groups. Our policy updates are designed to keep you in the loop as soon as policy shifts, so we will update you as and when more is announced.