Large grants available to struggling city businesses

City of Wolverhampton Council has confirmed payments under its business support grant schemes have been extended until Wednesday, March 31 – with businesses entitled to between £6,000 and £18,750 in total.

This relates to the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) for the period from January 5, 2021, and the discretionary Additional Restrictions Grant for the period from December 31, 2020.

The Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) is for businesses forced to close due to the Government’s current lockdown restrictions.

The Additional Restrictions Grant is aimed at supporting closed businesses not eligible for the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) and businesses that are open but have been significantly affected due to the current restrictions.

Eligibility criteria and how to access the online application process for all Wolverhampton business support grants can be found at www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/businessgrants. Businesses are urged to ensure they have all the correct evidence to hand before starting their application.

If you have already applied for payments from the above schemes there is no need to reapply as the new payments will automatically be paid until March 31.

Councillor Stephen Simkins, Cabinet Member for City Economy, said: “There are large amounts of money available to Wolverhampton businesses and I would urge them to check what they are eligible for by visiting the website and apply for these critical grants.

“As a council, during the pandemic we have paid out over £60million to thousands of eligible businesses so far to help them.

“We appreciate this is an extremely difficult time for businesses and these payments are our priority.

“Working within Government guidelines, we will ensure these new grants get allocated swiftly as our city looks to recover from the financial impact of Covid-19.”

If you have already made a recent application for a business grant then you can use this information and evidence as the basis for any subsequent application. 

If you need help with grant applications or have a general query, you can get in touch with us by emailing business.grants@wolverhampton.gov.uk or calling the business support phoneline on 01902 290242 between 9am and 5pm from Monday to Thursday or from 9am to 4.30pm on Fridays. We are experiencing extremely high levels of demand and would urge businesses to remain patient.

All of the grants are subject to State Aid rules and are treated as taxable income.

The Government has also announced this week new ‘restart’ grants. The scheme will make non-essential retail businesses eligible for grants of up to £6,000 per premises to help them reopen and begin trading safely. Hospitality, hotels, leisure, personal care and gyms, set to reopen later with further restrictions in place, can access up to £18,000, depending on their rateable value. Local authorities will administer and distribute the grants in their areas from April 2021.

The latest Government information on business grants and support can be viewed at https://bit.ly/32H66MX