Grants for businesses affected by coronavirus

Applications for this scheme closed on 28 February 2021. 

If you made an application before that date, your application must be finalised before 31 March 2021 as we are unable to make any payments after that date.

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If your business receives a business rate bill from us (even if you don’t have to pay anything) and had to close as a result of the national lockdown, you can apply for a grant.   

You can read our  Lockdown Support Scheme policy.

We can only consider applications received after 31 March 2021 in respect of grant payments from 16 February 2021 onwards.

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You can apply for a discretionary grant if your businesses has had to close, or if turnover has been severely affected by coronavirus restrictions. Businesses already receiving ‘Closed’ grants cannot receive additional discretionary grants.

This is for businesses in the following sectors: 

• retail
• leisure
• hospitality
• accommodation
• events
• supply chain businesses to the above
• taxi drivers with a current valid licence (issued by us)
• taxi proprietors (taxi owners) with current valid documents issued by us

You can read our Additional Restrictions Grant Scheme Policy.

As the funding for the discretionary grant is limited, we will make payments to existing applicants up to 15 March 2021.

We are hoping to receive more government funding, but the amount and timing has not yet been confirmed. 

If you applied after 15 March 2021, we will hold your application until we know about any extra funding. If you are eligible, we will make payments to you when we receive extra funding.

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Essex County Council has given us £286,000 to give to businesses who have spent money to adapt their business to coronavirus, or who intend to. 

If you are a small or medium size business, you can apply for a one-off grant of:

• £500
• £1,000
• £1,500

You must use this money to adapt your premises and/or operations so you can trade in a Covid-secure way. These grants are only available for any eligible spending that happened after 15 October 2020.

You can read full details of the  Business Adaptation Funding scheme, including eligibility criteria.

You can  apply using the same form as above. You will need to upload proof of any quotations for work or expenditure after 15 October 2020, so you need to have that ready.

This fund runs until 30 June 2021.

One-off Restart Grants will only be available to eligible businesses occupying properties on 1 April 2021 that have a rateable value.

The Restart Grant is intended to support businesses to re-open safely as coronavirus restrictions ease. The grant replaces the national lockdown business grants for the period after 31 March 2021.

If your business is already receiving grants, you should not reapply. We have started making payments to businesses which have already received grants up to 31 March 2021. We will publish full eligibility details as soon as possible.

Non-essential retail businesses may be eligible for the following amounts, if they are occupying a property with a rateable value:

• of exactly £15,000 or under: £2,667
• over £15,000 and less than £51,000: £4,000
• of exactly £51,000 or above: £6,000

Hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym businesses may be eligible for the following amounts, if they are occupying a property with a rateable value:

• of exactly £15,000 or under: £8,000
• over £15,000 and less than £51,000: £12,000
• of exactly £51,000 or above: £18,000

The Chancellor announced an extension to the business rates retail relief, which many businesses received in 2020/21. This will continue until 30 June 2021.

From 1 July 2021 until 31 March 2022, the relief will reduce from 100% to 66%. However, the amount of benefit that a single business can receive across all its properties will be capped. Businesses that had to closed on 5 January 2021 will be capped at £2m. Businesses that could open on 5 January 2021 will be capped at £105,000.

We will be sending out our business rates bills on or around 19 March 2021. Where businesses have received retail relief in 2020/21, the bill will show retail relief granted for the whole year. This is to ensure that businesses receiving retail relief will have nothing to pay in April, May and June. We will ask all other businesses to pay their first instalment on 15 April 2021, then instalments are due on the first of the month.

We will be writing to businesses that have received retail relief during April, asking if they are likely to exceed their cap. We will then either reduce retail relief to 66% or remove it altogether from 1 July 2021, depending on the answer.

You can view our coronavirus guidance for Council Tax and benefits.

If you have been contacted by NHS Test and Trace and have been told to self-isolate, you may be entitled to a  self-isolation payment.

For more wide-ranging advice regarding your finances, you may find this Money Navigator Toolproduced by the Money Advice Service helpful.