Plymouth City Council has a further £800,000 of Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) funding to distribute in grants to local businesses, helping them to recover from the impact of Covid-19.
As there is only a small amount of funding available, initial priority will be given to businesses that haven’t received any financial support for either of the national lockdowns in November 2020 and January to March 2021.
Businesses in the following sectors that have fixed costs of more than £500 a month will be prioritised for support:
- Boat based businesses, including businesses in the supply chain for the fishing and marine sector
- Childcare providers
- Businesses who supply music venues, weddings, events, hospitality, leisure and tourism
- Creative and event businesses who work from home, including freelance practitioners and consultants
- Businesses with packaged rent and rates who are in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors and not eligible for the Restart Grant
The following additional eligibility criteria also applies and businesses must:
- Have been trading on or before 1 April 2021
- Be a micro or small business with less than 50 employees
- Have ongoing fixed monthly business costs in Plymouth (e.g. mooring fees, rent, rates, insurances, utilities, equipment rental)
- Have not exceeded state subsidy levels
- Have been significantly affected by Covid-19
- If a home-based business, must be registered with HRMC and provide their Company Unique Taxpayer Reference and a copy of their most recent tax return.
Businesses that are insolvent, in administration or where a striking order has been made will not be eligible. Certain types of businesses will also be unable to claim the funding, including storage containers for personal use, buy to let properties and home sharing businesses.
Businesses that do not pay rates will be eligible for a one-off payment of £2,667.
Rate-paying businesses will receive the following one-off grant payments:
- For businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or under, grants to be £2,667
- For properties with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000, grants to be £4,000
- For properties with a rateable value of £51,000 or over, grants to be £6,000.
Applications for the new ARG funding will open at 10am on Tuesday 27 April. The application process will close on Tuesday 4 May at 10am, or once all of the funding has been allocated, so businesses are urged to apply as soon as they can.
The Council is aiming to pay businesses as quickly as possible, but please allow a minimum of two weeks before contacting us with questions about the outcome of an application. There is no right to appeal decisions about grants.
Find out more about the grants and how to apply at investplymouth.co.uk/business-grants.