Support grants available for Southend businesses forced to close in second lockdown

November 11, 2020

Businesses which have been ordered to close for four weeks due to the national COVID-19 restrictions may be eligible for a government grant of up to £3,000.

Southend-on-Sea Borough Council will be able to provide these grants across the borough. Businesses that are eligible include those that have been required to close during the 4-week lockdown from 5 November 2020 to 2 December 2020 and which are in the non-essential retail, leisure, personal care, sports facilities and hospitality sectors. The amount of grant available is as follows:

• For properties with a rateable value of £15k or under, grants to be £1,334 per month, or £667 per two weeks
• For properties with a rateable value of between £15k-£51k grants to be £2,000 per month, or £1,000 per two weeks
• For properties with a rateable value of £51k or over grants to be £3,000 per month, or £1,500 per two weeks

Businesses must be closed for the entirety of the 28-day payment cycle to be eligible and must complete a simple form on the council’s website in order to apply. This is because an application for state aid needs to be made and bank details need to be double checked.

Due to the expected high increase in customer contact, applicants are asked to avoid contacting the council unless they have not heard about their application after 10 working days.

Applicants can receive an update by emailing businessrates@southend.gov.uk and putting “Call back” with their service request number in the email subject field.

Cllr Kevin Robinson, cabinet member for business, culture and tourism said: “These grants have been introduced for certain businesses that have been required to close during the current lockdown period. Please check eligibility on the council website and if you can apply, please make sure you do so as soon as possible. We would appreciate it if people could avoid contacting us about their application until at least 10 days after they have made it, as this will allow us to concentrate on processing all applications as quickly as possible.”

For further information and links to grant application forms, please visit www.southend.gov.uk/businesscorona