Business
Business support grants
Business support grants
Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG)
Applications for this grant are now closed.
You can now apply for an Additional Restrictions Grant between 18 February and midnight on Friday 11 March.
Funding for this grant is limited and we will only be accepting applications during this period. The grants will be paid on a first come, first served basis until funding has been exhausted. No further grants will be awarded beyond this point.
Consideration will be given to the priority business listed below first. It should be remembered that making an application does not guarantee a grant will be awarded.
Eligibility criteria
- Micro and small businesses
- Businesses with ongoing fixed property related costs
- Businesses trading on or before 30 December 2021
- Businesses that continue to suffer a significant fall in income due to the COVID-19 crisis. Businesses will be required to provide a declaration to the Council. (This will be a self-declaratory statement to the effect that the fall in income is due to the COVID-19 crisis and not a general failure of business)
- Businesses must not be in administration, insolvent, or subject to a striking-off notice
- Businesses must not have already reached or exceeded the permitted subsidy control limits
- Businesses must not be claiming for a property that is empty or undergoing major works
Priority businesses for receipt of grants
These are businesses which we will consider before others when awarding from what is a fixed and limited funding allocation.
- Businesses in leisure, hospitality and visitor accommodation sectors that operate from premises not separately listed in the local rating list but with fixed property related costs
- Events, wedding or leisure businesses; and especially those that require premises for storage of goods or equipment
- Businesses directly responsible for supplying and/or supporting those categories of business listed above (e.g. sports therapists, events / wedding consultants, private coach hire companies)
- Businesses that are not retail and are not eligible to receive Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant
- Other businesses that do not have a business rates liability, but which are located, and have fixed-property costs, within the Epping Forest district.
Grant award levels
- £2,000 where small businesses meet the required criteria
- £1,000 where micro businesses meet the required criteria
- £500 where all other businesses meet the required criteria
Depending upon the number of applications for this grant, and any consequent funding implications, we may consider it appropriate to vary these amounts.
Businesses that are not eligible for grants
Businesses that are not eligible include those that:
- Are empty or undergoing major works
- Have already received grant payments that equal or exceed the permitted subsidy control limits
- Are in administration, insolvent or where a striking-off notice has been made
You must include the evidence we request with the form for your application to be considered for a grant. You must also declare that your business has suffered a loss in income due to COVID-19, and that in receiving this grant you have not reached or exceeded the subsidy control limits.
Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant (OHLG)
Applications for this grant are now closed.
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
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:
- Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant Guidance (pdf 252KB)
- Frequently Asked Questions v2 – Omicron Grant Support
- Additional Restrictions Grant Guidance (pdf 262KB)
Read our policy
- Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant Scheme (pdf 223KB)
- Retail Hospitality and Leisure Business Rates Scheme (2022/23) (pdf 205KB)
- Extension to the Transitional Relief and Supporting Small Business Rates Relief Scheme (2022/23 financial year only) (pdf 195KB)
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:
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:
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).
For further information: