COVID-19 business grant funding schemes: guidance for local authorities
Guidance for local authorities on paying grants to support businesses during national lockdown periods and periods of local restrictions.
Applies to England
Documents
Details
Update 19 January 2023: Debt recovery guidance republished
We have clarified the debt recovery process guidance (the process has not changed though), and updated the templates following feedback from local authorities. Annexes A and B templates are now available as Excel and Word documents.
You do not need to resubmit debts that have already been referred, but please use the latest versions for any future referrals.
These schemes, all delivered through local authorities, were to support local businesses during the national lockdown periods and periods of local restrictions. The guidance was for use by local authorities and set out the eligibility criteria, operation and delivery details for each strand of the schemes.
We also published guidance on:
- assurance checks that local authorities will need to provide
- debt recovery, returning reclaimed grants and referring outstanding debts to the government
Closed grant schemes
All schemes are now closed and all grant funding has been allocated.
Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant
This scheme provides support to hospitality, leisure and accommodation businesses, in recognition that the rise of the Omicron variant means that some businesses are likely to struggle over the coming weeks. This support will take the form of a one-off grant funding scheme. The funding will be made available in Financial Year 2021-2022 and can be used only in Financial Year 2021-2022. The scheme is administered by business rate billing authorities in England. (Guidance last updated: minor updates 21 January 2022)
Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG)
The Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) provides additional funding for local authorities subject to national lockdown or Tier 3 restrictions, to support businesses that have had their trade affected by the restrictions. This includes:
- closed businesses that don’t pay business rates
- businesses that have not been required to close, but are still severely impacted
(Guidance last updated: minor updates 20 January 2022)
Restart Grant
The Restart Grant was available from 1 April 2021 to support businesses in reopening safely as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted:
- non-essential retail premises with one-off grants of up to £6,000
- hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym business premises with one-off grants of up to £18,000
Support for businesses during the national lockdown period starting 5 January 2021
Two of the funds, the LRSG (Closed) Addendum and the Additional Restrictions Grant, plus the one-off Closed Businesses Lockdown Payment and the one-off Restart Grant were available to support businesses throughout this period of national restrictions.
Business support package for the January 2021 lockdown
Further information on the support available during this period of national lockdown.
Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) Addendum: applicable 5 November to 2 December 2020
Businesses required to close due to national lockdown restrictions received grants of up to £3,000 per 28-day period under the LRSG (Closed) Addendum, an extension of the LRSG (Closed) scheme.
Support for businesses during periods of local restrictions
Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed)
LRSG (Closed) provided grants to businesses in the highest band of local restrictions - Tier 3 - which were required to close during periods of local restrictions.
There are 2 versions of this guidance depending on which period the funding application related to:
- LRSG (Closed) Version 2: applicable from 2 December 2020 onwards
- LRSG (Closed): applicable from 9 September to 5 November 2020
Funding of up to £3,000 per 28-day period was available. During the period of national restrictions this grant was superseded by Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) Addendum.
Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) Addendum: Tier 4
LRSG (Closed) Addendum: Tier 4 provided grants to businesses in the highest band of local restrictions - Tier 4 - which were required to close during periods of local restrictions.
Local Restrictions Support Grant (Open)
Where local authorities were subject to Tier 2 or Tier 3 restrictions, this grant allowed local authorities to make discretionary payments to support businesses that were impacted by the restrictions, but not required to close.
There are 2 versions of this guidance depending on which period the funding application related to:
- LRSG (Open) Version 2: applicable from 2 December 2020 onwards
- LRSG (Open): applicable from 1 August to 5 November 2020
Local Restrictions Support Grant (Sector)
LRSG (Sector) provided grants of up to £3,000 per 28-day period to be made to businesses like nightclubs that were required to close on a national basis since 23 March 2020. It is possible that, as part of future efforts to control the spread of coronavirus, further business property types are closed on an England-wide basis. If so, these businesses will also be eligible for these grants once they have been closed for 14 days.
The LRSG (Sector) scheme was effective from 1 November 2020.
Christmas Support Payment for wet-led pubs
The Christmas Support Payment grant provided funding for local authorities subject to Tier 2 or Tier 3 restrictions in December 2020 to pay one-off grants of £1,000 to wet-led pubs. These are pubs that predominantly serve alcohol rather than provide food and have been severely impacted over the festive season due to temporary local restrictions.
Sample declaration template for subsidy allowances
The sample subsidy allowances declaration template is for local authorities to send out to businesses.
Updates to this page
Published 3 November 2020Last updated 19 January 2023 + show all updates
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Debt recovery guidance updated: process clarified (but no changes), templates updated following feedback from local authorities. Annexes A and B templates are now available as Excel / Word documents.
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Assurance guidance updated to reflect the correct minimum assurance criteria for the LRSG (Open) scheme.
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We have added new guidance on a one-off grant funding scheme: the Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant. We have revised the guidance on the Additional Restrictions Grant, and updated the Debt Recovery and Assurance guidance.
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We have published guidance on assurance and debt recovery, returning reclaimed grants and referring outstanding debts to the government.
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Additional Restrictions Grant guidance updated: as Step 4 of the roadmap out of restrictions has been delayed for up to 4 weeks, we have updated the guidance to account for this and extended the spending allocation deadline to 30 July 2021.
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Payment deadlines have been extended for the following schemes: LRSG (Open), LRSG (Sector), LRSG (Closed), LRSG (Closed) Addendum, LRSG (Closed) Addendum: Tier 4, LRSG (Closed) Addendum: 5 January onwards (first 6-week payment only) and Closed Businesses Lockdown Payment. Further information has been provided on the subsidy transparency database. The Christmas Support Payment guidance has been withdrawn as the scheme is now closed and all grant funding has been allocated.
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Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG): scheme definitions added for 'spend' and 'validated attempt'.
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Added sample template for declaring subsidy allowances which can be sent out to businesses.
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Added new guidance on the Restart Grant and updated guidance on the Additional Restrictions Grant to include £425m top-up from 1 April 2021.
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All guidance documents updated: closing dates added; subsidy allowance guidelines amended; requirement for a business to have been trading before restrictions were announced in order to be eligible for funding has been clarified.
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Guidance document 'Business support package for January 2021 lockdown' updated with details of the next payment cycle covering the period 16 February to 31 March.
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The deadline for applications for the Christmas Support Payment for wet pubs has been extended to 28 February 2021.
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Business support package for the January 2021 lockdown: guidance for local authorities added.
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LRSG (Closed) Addendum: Tier 4 - applicable 19 December 2020 onwards published.
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Guidance amended to reflect UK’s updated state aid agreement with the EU Commission. First LRSG (Open) dates changed to cover 1 August to 5 November 2020.
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LRSG (Open) Version 2: applicable from 2 December 2020 onwards - guidance for local authorities published.
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Christmas Support Payment for wet-led pubs: guidance for local authorities added.
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Guidance on 'Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed): applicable from 2 December 2020 onwards' added.
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Local Restrictions Support Grant strands and the Additional Restrictions Grant explained.
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First published.