Council opens grant scheme for businesses severely impacted by COVID-19

Hastings Borough Council has now opened applications for the 'Local Restriction Support Grant (open)' scheme for businesses who were severely affected by the local COVID-19 restrictions late last year.
The scheme is aimed at hospitality and leisure businesses, such as restaurants, takeaways, pubs, live music venues, gyms, and hotels, that were severely impacted by the Tier 2 or Tier 3 restrictions that came in on or after 2 December 2020.

Cllr Peter Chowney, lead councillor for financial management and estates said,

"We understand how much of an impact COVID-19 has had on businesses, even those who were not legally required to close during localised restrictions at the end of last year. 

"This grant will give financial support to those businesses whose trade has been badly impacted by the pandemic and will help contribute to keeping our local businesses afloat during difficult times.

"The amount of funding received will depend on the rateable value of the business.

"We thank businesses for their patience whilst we developed our discretionary schemes, and we're glad to finally be able to distribute this much needed funding. We already have 300 businesses in our system who will receive payments straight away, but we encourage those who have not already been in contact to check their eligibility and apply. Please go to our website to find all the details.

"The council is preparing a further discretionary business grant scheme, called the Additional Restrictions Grants. This will target businesses whose trade has been affected by the current lockdown, but are not entitled to the current statutory grants, or where the statutory grants are not sufficient to cover their fixed property costs. Details of this will be released soon.

"Over the past year, the council has been required to distribute funding to local businesses through 14 different grant schemes, with a total of around £27m already distributed in Hastings. We appreciate this multiplicity of different schemes makes it difficult to keep track of what's on offer, but the currently available schemes are summarised on the council website, where you can apply if you're eligible."