Businesses which remained open during late September and October this year, but were severely impacted by the Covid rules which restricted socialising, can now apply for a support grant. 

 

Aimed primarily at businesses in the hospitality, hotel, bed and breakfast and leisure sectors, the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Open) will provide up to £3,675 of support for eligible companies, depending on their rateable value. 

 

Applications have opened today, and can be made retrospectively back to 18 September, when restrictions were introduced in North East England which included stopping households from mixing and requiring hospitality venues to close between 10pm and 5am. 

 

Businesses will be able to claim up to 4 November, the day before the national lockdown, and all applications must be made by no later than Monday 7 December. 

 

Cllr Nick Oliver, cabinet member for corporate services at Northumberland County Council, said: “We are very pleased to have this second set of grants open for applications, and once we receive the required information from businesses will be processing them as quickly as we can. 

 

“The hospitality and leisure sector has been particularly badly affected by restrictions on socialising, and we hope that these grants will go some way to supporting businesses through this extremely difficult time. 

 

“We will soon be announcing a further scheme too – which we hope will help some of the businesses which supply the hospitality, accommodation and leisure sector, and also hospitality, accommodation and leisure businesses which operate from business premises which don’t have a rateable value.” 

 

The Local Restrictions Support Grant (Open) grant is specifically aimed at the hospitality, accommodation and leisure sector businesses which have a rateable value. 

 

It does not cover businesses associated with personal care, such as hairdressers or tattooists, general retail businesses and garden centres, and businesses that operate from home, although registered bed and breakfasts will be eligible under the further scheme to be announced soon. 

 

For businesses which have been legally required to close during the national lockdown, from 5 November, there is a further grant scheme which is open for applications - Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) Addendum. 

 

Businesses such as nightclubs which had to close in March, and have not yet been able to reopen, will also be able to claim a support grant from 1 November, and the council will be launching the application process for these grants soon.   

 

To find out more about the grants, and to make an application go to www.northumberland.gov.uk/businesshub    

 

Please visit the business hub web pages or https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus/business-support for details of all of the support available for businesses.