Richard Holden, MP for North West Durham, has welcomed the Government’s new Restart Grants programme.
Established to help businesses recover and bounce back once restrictions are eased, the Restart Grant scheme supports businesses in the non-essential retail, hospitality, leisure, personal care and accommodation sectors with a one-off grant. This grant can go towards enabling businesses to reopen safely.
Grants became available earlier this month and are given out to businesses by their local councils. The non-essential retail sector is able to access grants of up to £6000, whilst businesses in the hospitality, leisure, gym, accommodation and personal care sector may be entitled to grants of up to £18,000.
Businesses need to fulfil the following criteria in order to be eligible:
- Be based in England
- Rate-paying
- In one of the sectors eligible for grants
- Trading on 1st April 2021
Local councils use their discretion to decide whether businesses meet the eligibility criteria and decide what amount a business will receive.
To read more about restart grants, please visit the Government website here. If you think your business may be eligible and you would like to apply for a grant, you can do so on Durham County Council’s website here.
Commenting, Richard said:
“The Restart Grant scheme is one of many financial schemes that have been established by the Government during lockdown to ensure that staff do not face redundancy and businesses are able to reopen as soon as it is safe to do so.
“The Restart Grants will go an enormously long way in helping businesses to reopen and grow following the lifting of restrictions. Around 700,000 businesses in England will be eligible for the grant – this includes small businesses, who will be able to access thousands of pounds under the scheme.
“This Government has done an enormous amount to ensure that businesses and individuals have the financial backing they need and deserve throughout the pandemic, and the restart grants are another major cashflow boost as we come to the end of restrictions.”
To hear more about the work that Richard is doing for North West Durham, you can sign up here or input your details in the form on this page.