Plymouth businesses that have been affected by the Omicron variant will soon be able to apply for grant funding.
The next round of Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) administered by Plymouth City Council will offer grants of £1,500.
Applications will open at 9am on Monday 14 February on the Plymouth City Council website. These will be dealt with on a first come, first served basis, so businesses are urged to apply as quickly as possible.
Council Leader Nick Kelly said: “We have a limited pot of funding to distribute on this occasion – just £256,000 compared to the £1.2 million we were given in April 2021. I have written to the Government to highlight the need for additional funding to support our local businesses, many of whom struggled over the Christmas and New Year period due to the rise in the Omicron variant.
“With a limited amount of funding to distribute, we’re trying to make it as fair as possible and would encourage any eligible businesses to apply as quickly as they can on Monday 14 February to avoid missing out, as we know these grants will be oversubscribed.”
The grants are aimed at the following types of businesses, which must have business premises to be considered eligible:
- Leisure, hospitality and accommodation businesses with packaged rent and rates (which made them ineligible for the Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant)
- Personal care services
- Travel and tourism businesses including group travel, travel agents, tour operators and coach operators
- Wedding businesses
- Events businesses
- English language schools
- Breweries
- Gyms
- Independent retailers
- Wholesalers that supply the hospitality sector
To complete an application form businesses will need to provide certain information, including business rates account numbers (if applicable) and unique identifier information (for example a Company Reference Number, VAT registration or Unique Tax Reference).
Applicants will need to prove that they have suffered income losses of at least 30 per cent and will be asked to supply clear evidence of comparable accounts from 2019.
All businesses will also need to supply their bank details as well as an image of their business bank statement or cheque book.
The application process will close once all the grants have been claimed. In the unlikely event that not all grants are claimed, the final deadline for applications will be 7 March.
Find out more about the grants and how to apply on the Plymouth City Council website.