£1 billion in support for businesses
Published on Tuesday, 21 December 2021
Additional support
will be available for businesses who have been impacted by the Omicron variant,
the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak announced today (21 December).
•Businesses in the hospitality and
leisure sectors in England will be eligible for one-off grants of up to £6,000
per premises, plus more than £100 million discretionary funding will be made
available for local authorities to support other businesses
•Government will also cover the cost of
Statutory Sick Pay for Covid-related absences for small and medium-sized
employers across the UK
•£30 million further funding will be made
available through the Culture Recovery Fund, enabling more cultural
organisations in England to apply for support during the winter
Recognising that the rise of the Omicron variant
means some businesses are likely to struggle over the coming weeks, the
government is providing one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premises for
businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors in England.
Around 200,000 businesses will be eligible for
business grants which will be administered by local authorities and will be
available in the coming weeks.
To support other businesses impacted by Omicron –
such as those who supply the hospitality and leisure sectors – the government
is also giving a more than £100 million boost to the Additional Restrictions
Grant (ARG) fund for local authorities in England.
Local Authorities will have discretion to allocate this funding to businesses
most in need. The ARG top up will be prioritised for those local authorities
that have distributed the most of their existing allocation. This is on top of
the £250 million of previously allocated funding that remains with local
authorities.
As increasing numbers of Covid-19 cases means more workers taking time off
work, the government is also reintroducing the Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme
(SSPRS).
The SSPRS will help small and medium-sized employers – those with fewer than
250 employees – by reimbursing them for the cost of Statutory Sick Pay for
Covid-related absences, for up to 2 weeks per employee. Firms will be eligible
for the scheme from today and they will be able to make claims retrospectively
from mid-January.
To provide continued support to the cultural sector, £30 million further
funding will be made available through the Culture Recovery Fund to support
organisations such as theatres, orchestras and museums through the winter to
March 2022.
This figure will build on nearly £240 million of cultural grant support already
allocated this financial year or currently available for organisations to bid
for.
Further national information on these
schemes can be found here.
All the latest Solihull Council
information regarding ARG and business grants will be updated here.