Financial support package revealed for Tier 2 businesses
By Kat Hill | 22 October 2020 | Movers & Shakers, News
The Chancellor Rishi Sunak has announced further measures today (22 October) to help support businesses affected by a reduction in income and footfall due to the Covid-19 pandemic.
Changes mean that grants of up to £2,100 per month will be available to eligible businesses in Tier 2. The measures include both self-employed and business grants, as well as changes to the Job Support Scheme (JSS), which is set to replace the furlough scheme in November.
In a briefing, Chancellor Rishi Sunak stated that the additional financial support on offer will be available to businesses and workers restricted by Tier 2.
Stating the package is ‘a plan to support the British people’, Rishi Sunak said: “We will listen and respond to peoples’ concerns as the situation evolves.”
Businesses in the Tier 3 alert level will be able to access greater support through business support packages provided to local authorities by the government as they move into that alert level.
The measures outlined include:
Self-employed grant
The package sees an increase in the potential grant amount for self-employed workers from £1,875 (20% of profits) to a maximum of £3,750 (40%) for every three-month period.
This three-month period will cover November 2020 to January 2021 and February 2021 to April 2021.
Business grants
The government is providing additional funding to local authorities in England to support businesses in Tier 2. Grants of up to £2,100 per month will be made available.
Local authorities will determine which businesses are eligible for grant funding and what precise funding will be allocated to each business,
Job Support Scheme (JSS)
The JSS will now see employers paying a maximum of 5% of employees’ wages for hours not worked and reduces the minimum hours requirement from 33% to 20%. This means staff working just one day a week will be eligible. The JSS will come into effect on 1 November.
The NHBF has welcomed latest support plan for struggling businesses in need of ‘urgent need of help’ owing to a fall in client numbers.
Chief executive of the industry body, Richard Lambert comments: “We commend the government for their latest announcement, responding to the feedback from ourselves and others that operational businesses are seeing desperately low client numbers because of the current situation and are in urgent need of help.
“What we now need is to ensure that adequate support is getting to all business, regardless of their alert level or Tier and that it is coming through quickly.
“We will be continuing to call on the government to address upcoming pinch points for businesses such as the end of the moratorium on eviction protection at the end of December and the 100% business rates relief which run until the end of March.”