Chancellor announces £9,000 grants for businesses

Chancellor, Rishi Sunak, has announced one-off grants worth up to £9,000 will be available to beauty businesses, as part of a new package for the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors in England.

The funds will be available to nail & beauty businesses, confirmed by Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) and HM Treasury (HMT) via the British Beauty Council.

The addition package of £4.6 billion comes after the announcement of a third national lockdown to help control the spread of coronavirus, seeing most businesses close their doors until at least February half term.

The available funds for businesses will be on top of the existing grants and the extension of furlough to the end of April.

The one-off top-ups will be granted to closed businesses as follows:

• £4,000 for businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or under
• £6,000 for businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000
• £9,000 for businesses with a rateable value of over £51,000

“The new strain of the virus presents us all with a huge challenge – and whilst the vaccine is being rolled out, we have needed to tighten restrictions further,” the chancellor stated.

“Throughout the pandemic we’ve taken swift action to protect lives and livelihoods and today [5 January] we’re announcing a further cash injection to support businesses and jobs until the spring.

“This will help businesses to get through the months ahead – and crucially it will help sustain jobs, so workers can be ready to return when they are able.”

The announcement comes as The National Hair & Beauty Federation (NHBF) warned hair & beauty businesses across the UK are facing weekly income loss totalling over £124 million.

The cash is provided on a per-property basis to support businesses through the latest restrictions. The package is expected to benefit over 600,000 business properties, worth £4 billion in total across all nations of the UK.

A further £594 million is also being made available for Local Authorities and the Devolved Administrations to support other businesses not eligible for the grants, that might be affected by the restrictions. Businesses should apply to their Local Authorities.

Business support is a devolved policy and therefore the responsibility of the devolved administrations, which will receive additional funding as a result of these announcements in the usual manner:

• The Scottish Government will receive £375 million
• The Welsh Government will receive £227 million
• The Northern Ireland Executive will receive £127 million

Small businesses in the devolved administrations should also be able to benefit from other UK-wide measures in the government’s package of support for business.

The new one-off grants come in addition to billions of existing business support, including grants worth up to £3,000 for closed businesses, and up to £2,100 per month for impacted businesses once they reopen.

The government has also provided 100% business rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, £1.1 billion existing discretionary funding for Local Authorities, the furlough scheme now extended to April and 100% government backed loans, extended until March.

For more information about business support, visit www.gov.uk/coronavirus