Grants, Business Rates and Loans

Grants

Under the Retail and Hospitality Grant Scheme businesses can access cash grants of £25,000 for each property with a rateable value of £15,001-£51,000 and £10,000 for each property with a rateable value of £15,000 or lower.
Small businesses which occupy premises and already receive small business rate relief or rural rate relief are eligible for a one-off grant of £10,000 to help meet their ongoing business costs. Scotland & Wales have announced similar grant schemes. The link for information on the Scottish Scheme can be found here.
Please contact your local authority to confirm if you are eligible for a grant.

Business Rate Reliefs

12-month business rates holiday for all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England and Scotland for the 2020 to 2021 tax year.
UK Government guidance can be found here and Scottish Government guidance here.
Each local authority should adjust the next council tax bill to remove the business rates charge.
To estimate the saving for your business please use the calculator here. (based on English rates).
Businesses may also be able to request Hardship Relief via their local authority.

Recovery Loan Scheme Announced

The Recovery Loan Scheme started on 6 April and runs until 31 December. It replaces the Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) and Coronavirus Busines Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), which closed on 31 March 2021.

The RLS operates in a similar way to the previous schemes, with the government providing lenders with an 80% guarantee for facilities ranging from £1,000 - £10m, up to a maximum of six years.

Term loans and overdrafts will be available between £25,001 and £10m per business.
Invoice finance and asset finance will be available between £1,000 and £10m per business.
Finance terms are up to six years for term loans and asset finance facilities. For overdrafts and invoice finance facilities, terms will be up to three years.
The eligibility criteria remain that the business must have been affected by the pandemic and demonstrate viability pre-pandemic as well as not being in collective insolvency proceedings. No personal guarantees will be required for lending under £250,000 and a borrower’s principal private residence cannot be taken as security.
The money can be used for any legitimate business purpose and those who’ve already received a CBILS or BBLS facility are able to utilise the new scheme, provided they meet all the criteria.
The Recovery Loan is available through a network of accredited lenders.

More information can be found here

Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)

This scheme is now closed, please read our latest article Spring Budget 2021 - Recovery Loan Scheme Announced which will start on the 6th April 2021 and replace the existing CBILS and BBLS schemes

How CBILS worked

The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) provides UK businesses with an annual turnover of no more than £45m a loan of up to £5m interest-free for 12 months under a British Business Bank (BBB) scheme, where the Government provides the lender with a guarantee for 80% of each loan (subject to a per-lender cap on claims) and covers the cost of the first 12 months of interest.

More information about the scheme can be found here.

Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS)

This scheme is now closed, please read our latest article Spring Budget 2021 - Recovery Loan Scheme Announced which will start on the 6th April 2021 and replace the existing CBILS and BBLS schemes

How the Bounce Back Loan worked

No interest would be charged and no repayments would need to be made in the first 12 months.
After 12 months, all banks charge a fixed 2.5% annual interest.
You can repay the loan early without penalty or with some banks you can part-repay or overpay.
The loans can now last for 10 years i.e. a year interest-free and the rest at 2.5%. However, you can repay at any time without paying a fee, providing flexibility – and the sooner you repay once interest is charged, the smaller the overall cost.
Payment holiday and/or interest-only periods of up to six months. This includes the option to:
- Move to interest-only payments temporarily up to three times, with each interest-only period lasting up to six months, and/or
- Take one payment holiday over the length of the loan, pausing repayments for up to six months. This option can only be used once you've made at least six payments (whether capital and interest or interest only).
- Your business must have been established before 1 March 2020. It must also still be trading as a going concern at the point of application (temporary cessation due to coronavirus doesn't matter) – and the reason for any issues must be due to coronavirus.
- Credit ratings (business or personal) won't affect your eligibility. You don't need to prove the viability of your business.
- The loan will likely go on your business credit report, but not on your personal one (though banks may do 'soft' credit checks on both).
- Bounce back loans DON'T affect your eligibility for other Government personal support i.e. you can still apply for a bounce-back loan and get the SEISS support grants.