Business grants

Additional funding for businesses

The government recently provided additional funding schemes to help businesses impacted by COVID-19 and the Omicron variant in particular.

Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant (OHLG)

Eligible businesses trading on 30 December 2021 could claim up to £6,000 as a one off payment to compensate for the loss of trade as a result of the Omicron variant. The deadline for claiming funding under this scheme was 18 March 2022. Applications are now closed.

Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG)

The additional funding has now been distributed as a top up to hundreds of small businesses that already qualified under this scheme, bringing the total ARG funding paid out to over £8.5m.

Covid Additional Restrictions Fund (CARF)

This fund will be distributed to eligible businesses as a relief on 2021/22 business rate bills, but as per government guidelines this will not include businesses that already receive, or are eligible for Expanded Retail Relief on their business rate bills, or where the business is not trading. 

Whilst we fully understand businesses are in urgent need of this additional financial assistance, this scheme requires us to set up additional local discretionary criteria for eligibility which means that it needs to go through formal decision making processes. Once this discretionary scheme has been agreed, we will work as quickly as we can to implement it. Please check back for further information.

Grants paid

The table below details the number of businesses that received funding and the value of funding disbursed. The different schemes are listed in order of when they were launched, starting with the most recent.

Grants paid to businesses

Grant	No. of businesses paid a grant	Total paid out
Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant	443	£1,811,372
LRSG (Closed) Addendum - second payment cycle (16 February to 31 March)	53	£155,000
Restart Grant 1	429	£1,549,000
Restart Grant 2	858	£9,602,000
Closed Business January Lockdown Support Package	1,236	£13,799,000
LRSG (Closed) Addendum - Tier 4	1,039	£1,086,000
Christmas Support Payments for wet-led pubs	51	£51,000
LRSG (Closed)	243	£99,000
LRSG (Sector)	1	£3,000
LRSG (Open)	225	£381,000
Additional Restrictions Grant	1,638	£8,550,000
Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) - Addendum November 2020	1,227	£2,274,000
Discretionary Business Fund Grant	212	£2,120,000
Retail, Hospitality & Leisure Grant (£10,000)	1,048	£2,100,000
Retail, Hospitality & Leisure Grant (£25,000)	210	£26,200,000
Small Business Grant	1,274	£12,740,000