Retailers urged to apply for Covid-19 grants as deadline looms

The government has confirmed that the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHLGF);  the Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF);  and the Discretionary Grant Fund allocated to Local Authorities to pay businesses suffering from the impact of Covid-19 should close by Friday 28 August 2020.

The original grant schemes were set up on 23 March, 2020 as the country went into lockdown and were supplemented by the Discretion Grant Fund set up in May which was supposed to plug the gap for those businesses who were struggling to access the initial funds.

Government data shows £1.58bn of the grants funds are still to be distributed and business rates experts at Colliers International are calling for this to be distributed to those small businesses, retailers and hospitality companies who have fallen between the cracks.

John Webber, head of business rates at Colliers International, said: “We have had a bizarre scenario where there are some areas of the country with still “too much grant” to payout, such as Cornwall who has paid out £235m of its whopping £281m grant, but other parts of the country where the grant allocations were simply not big enough.”

He added: “Now the government has announced the end of all the grant schemes, we urge any retailer or hospitality business to get their claim in as soon as possible. The VOA is under-resourced at the moment and there are some delays in claims being processed. The deadline date of 28 August may mean many may run out of time to claim.

“We are therefore petitioning that the government takes this into account and rather than return unused grant monies to BEIS, it redistributes the £1.58bn left to support those businesses, who have still missed out on funds so far, or reconsiders the hard deadline. Supporting our retail and hospitality businesses are vital if we are to get the UK economy back on its feet.”