Coronavirus Restrictions Fund now available for businesses in Scotland

This follows the Scottish Government’s announcement that £48 million (increased from the original £40 million) had been earmarked to support business who have been impacted by the COVID-19 restrictions, that came into effect from 9th October 2020.

Further details have now been released about how the Coronavirus Restrictions Fund will be deployed and details of how applications for grant funding.

This new and temporary support will be administered by local authorities who will provide one-off grants to hospitality and other businesses with premises who are required to close due to COVID-19 restrictions.

Business Closure Scheme

The Business Closure Scheme will provide support to eligible business who have business premises and will operate on a two-tiered basis:

• A smaller grant of £2,875 for businesses with a rateable value of up to and including £51,000
• A larger grant of £4,310 for those businesses with a rateable value of £51,001 and above

Discretionary Business Hardship Fund

It has also been announced that local authorities will invite applications for new business hardship fund grants.

Grant payments will be for £1,440 or £2,155, dependent on the Rateable Value of your business premises.

Eligibility

More details on eligibility for the above two schemes may be found here.

For both schemes, businesses who provide takeaway food as the core and established basis of their operations will not be eligible for this grant funding.

Multiple premises

The guidance states that if a business operates multiple premises, you can apply for grants for each of the premises, applying only once to the local authority in which a business is headquartered.

Grant funding will be capped where a business operates from multiple premises and the upper limit cap for the Business Closure Fund is £21,000 and the upper limit for Business Hardship Fund is £14,000.

How to apply for Coronavirus Restrictions Fund

You need to apply directly through your local council and details of current local councils who are accepting applications may be found here.

Applications went live local authority websites on 20th October and will close on Tuesday, 3rd November at 5pm.

Limited funding

The Scottish Government has advised that funds are limited and they wish to ensure that grant applications do not exceed the funding available. The Scottish Government will therefore target the first round of applications on the following businesses:

• Hospitality businesses and some gyms, required by these new regulations to operate in a restricted way
• Producers/wholesale businesses based in Scotland supplying primarily short-life goods or produce to hospitality businesses required by the regulations to close or operate in a restricted way and able to evidence a minimum 25% reduction in turnover during the brake period

For more information about what is available to support your business, please visit the www.FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot website.

Date published 21 Oct 2020 | Last updated 28 Oct 2020