Business

Business support grants

Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant (OHLG)

The Government announced on 21 December it is introducing £1billion in support for businesses most impacted by Omicron.

Grants are available for businesses in the hospitality and leisure sector including pubs and restaurants, wedding venues, village halls, campsites, hotels, B&Bs, and many more. This does not include gyms and sports businesses such as dance and fitness studios, sports centres and clubs, sports courts, swimming pools and golf courses.

Each business will need to make an application for the grant.

Grants will be paid to eligible business premises with 3 levels of qualification according to the rateable value:

£0 to £15,000 will receive £2,667
£15,001 to £51,000 will receive £4,000
Over £51,000 will receive £6,000

Eligible businesses must have been trading on 30 December 2021.

How to apply

The closing date for applications is 18 March. All grants will be paid by 31 March when the scheme finishes.

You will need to have the following information for your application:

Name of business
Business trading address including postcode
Unique identifier
High level Standard Industrial Classification (SIC) code
Nature of business
Date business established
Number of employees
Business rates account number

Apply online

Apply for the Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant

Full details including a list of eligible businesses and business grants subsidy allowance can be found in the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) guidance:

Read our policy

Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant Scheme (pdf 223KB)

Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme

The 2022/23 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Relief scheme will provide eligible, occupied, retail, hospitality and leisure properties with a 50% relief, up to a cash cap limit of £110,000 per business.

Please note that a small number of properties that qualified for this relief in 2021/2022 will cease to be eligible in 2022/2023.

Further information, including the full list of eligible properties can be found here:

GOV.UK business rates guidance: 2022/23 Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Relief Scheme

COVID-19 Additional Relief (CARF)

In March 2021 the Government announced a new relief package for businesses. This required primary legislation which was passed on 15 December 2021.

As a result of this legislation, the Government announced the COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund (CARF) scheme. We have been allocated £2,147,202 for this support package. The aim of this relief is to reduce the rates charged in 2021/2022.

Relief will be awarded according to the following criteria:

The Council cannot award relief to ratepayers who for the same period of the relief either are or would have been eligible for the Extended Retail Discount (covering Retail, Hospitality and Leisure), the Nursery Discount or the Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme (AGOSS)
The Council cannot award relief to a hereditament for a period when it is unoccupied (other than hereditaments which have become closed temporarily due to the government’s advice on COVID-19, which should be treated as occupied for the purposes of this relief)
The Council must direct support under this scheme towards ratepayers who have been adversely affected by the pandemic and have been unable to adequately adapt to that impact

Having regard to (3) above, this requires the Council to devise and adopt a local scheme and policy.

This will be published in the New Year as soon as we are able to interpret the full details and guidance. The details are complex and require changes to our business rates software which we are already working on.

We expect to be in a position to provide this relief to local businesses before the end of the current financial year.

For further information:

GOV.UK guidance: COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund

Transitional Relief and Supporting Small Business Relief

For the financial year 2022/23, the Government are extending the Transitional Relief and Supporting Small Business Relief for eligible businesses with a rateable value up to and including £100,000.

The Transitional Relief scheme was originally introduced in 2017 to help businesses faced with higher bills as a result of increased rateable values from the 2017 revaluation. The scheme was due to end on 31 March 2022, as a result of which a small number of ratepayers would be presented with a significantly increased business rates bill from 1 April 2022.

In the October Budget the Government announced that it would extend the current transitional relief scheme and the supporting small business scheme for 1 year to the end of the current revaluation cycle.

The scheme will restrict increases in bills to 15% for businesses with small properties (up to and including £20,000 rateable value) and 25% for medium properties (up to and including £100,00 rateable value).