If you’re one of the 700,000 small businesses waiting for more information on the Small Business Grants announced by the Chancellor on the 17th March it must feel like time is standing still.
Local authority/council email alerts don’t seem to be working so in reality your only option is to keep checking their website to see if there have been any updates, which is the last thing you want to do because you’re trying to keep your business afloat.
To try and make life easier I’m checking my local council’s website (Cheshire West) daily and posting changes in the table below (latest first). You may get updates from your own council quicker but they’re all going to be working to the same rules so hopefully this will help any small businesses elsewhere in the UK that are in the dark.
| Date | Update |
|---|---|
| 30/03/2020 | Small Business Grant Application Form Received email with application for Small Business Grant. The link below is for Cheshire West ONLY. If you’re not in Cheshire West you should have received or will shortly be receiving something similar. https://my.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/en/AchieveForms/?form_uri=sandbox-publish://AF-Process-2391af7d-170d-485f-8a16-f19eb5874bc3/AF-Stage-785e78eb-cf08-46fb-87e4-589497d5649b/definition.json&redirectlink=/en&cancelRedirectLink=/en |
| 19/03/2020 | Business grants for small businesses On 17 March the Government announced two grant schemes to support small businesses during this difficult time. These grants will be administered by local authorities: – scheme 1 focuses on businesses who are in receipt of Small Business Rate Relief and Rural Rate relief with a rateable vaule of under £15,000 and will offer a grant of £10,000 – scheme 2 focuses on the retail, leisure and hospitality sector for organisations who do not receive small business rate relief and have a rateable value under £51,000 and will offer a grant of up to £25,000. The Council is working closely with the central government advisory group on determining the eligibility criteria for each scheme and can assure businesses that things are moving at pace. Work is underway to identify businesses that will be affected by all the recent business rate support announcements and the Council will be contacting them shortly. It is the Council’s aim to issue grants to those identified as eligible for scheme 1 over the next few weeks and upon receipt of guidance from central government eligible businesses for scheme 2 grants as soon as possible afterwards. Further information is being received from Government on a daily basis and we will update guidance as it is received. Source: https://www.cheshirewestandchester.gov.uk/news-and-views/incidents/coronavirus-covid-19/businesses-and-employees.aspx |
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