Government announce £1 billion in support for businesses most impacted by Omicron
The Chancellor has announced £1 billion in support for hospitality and leisure businesses in England, as well as additional support that will be available for businesses who have been impacted by the Omicron variant.
The announcement (22 December) outlined that:
Businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors in England will be eligible for one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premises, plus additional discretionary funding will be made available for local authorities to support other businesses
Government will also cover the cost of Statutory Sick Pay for Covid-related absences for small and medium-sized employers across the UK
£30 million further funding will be made available through the Culture Recovery Fund, enabling more cultural organisations in England to apply for support during the winter.
We are awaiting more information on the new funding in the coming weeks, including the full guidance on eligible businesses and the process for distributing the grant payments. We would ask you to please not contact us to find out more about this at present and we will work to ensure that eligible businesses receive this support as quickly as possible in the new year, once the funding is available to us.
Wiltshire Council announcement of financial support for hospitality and leisure businesses in January
As well as the Government’s announcement of new grant funding for businesses, we are also issuing separate grants to support hospitality and leisure businesses.
Our officers are working hard to process these grants that we will be issuing to hospitality and leisure businesses in January. These will automatically be paid to businesses who previously benefitted from a Restart or Discretionary Restart Grant, subject to eligibility checks. There is no need for businesses to reapply or contact us regarding these grants and we will update businesses with more information in the new year – including how new hospitality and leisure businesses can apply.