Restart Grants

The Restart grant is a one-off grant to support Businesses as they reopen when Covid-19 restrictions end. The following categories of businesses, which are also registered to pay business rates on 1 April 2021, are eligible -

• non-essential retail
• hospitality
• accommodation
• leisure
• personal care
• gym business

The primary principle of the Restart Grant scheme is to support businesses that offer in-person services, where the main service and activity takes place in a fixed rate-paying premises, in the relevant sectors. Local Authorities are responsible for determining whether businesses are entitled to a grant under the non-essential retail thresholds, or under the hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym business thresholds.

Non Essential Retail business premises can receive a grants of up to £6,000 in line with the following thresholds as at 1 April 2021 -

• rateable Value of £15,000 or under will receive a payment of £2,667
• rateable Value of over £15,000 and less than £51,000 will receive a payment of £4,000
• rateable Value of £51,000 or over will receive a payment of £6,000

Hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym business premises can receive one-off grants of up to £18,000 in line with the following thresholds as at 1 April 2021 -

• rateable Value of £15,000 or under will receive a payment of £8,000
• rateable Value of over £15,000 and less than £51,000 will receive a payment of £12,000
• rateable Value of £51,000 or over will receive a payment of £18,000

For those businesses that were eligible for and paid existing local restrictions and lockdown grants, we will re-assess the information provided in your existing applications to determine what level of Restart Grant you are eligible to receive. Wherever possible these payments will be made automatically without the need for a further application form to be completed. However the Government requires additional information about businesses for Restart Grants to be paid therefore where we cannot obtain this information ourselves we will contact you/your business to request the additional information.

We will not be able to make a grant payment until the required information is received. In some cases we may ask you to complete a further online application form via the Council’s website.  New applications for Restart Grants will be able to be made from this web page once the application form is available.

The Restart Grant payments for existing grant recipients started on 9 April 2021. Payments are made by BACs into the business bank account provided which takes 2-3 working days.

For those businesses that have not received existing local restrictions and lockdown grants, new applications for Restart Grants can be made using the form below.

This scheme is open for new applications until 30 June 2021.

Unfortunately, this form is currently unavailable and should be available again soon. We apologies for any inconvenience this may have caused.

Conditions for applications

• any grants paid in error or due to the provision of false information by the claimant are to be repaid to the Council. The Council will take recovery action against the business concerned including action through the Courts if required.
• businesses must have been trading on 1 April 2021 to claim a Restart Grant.
• any changes to the rating list (rateable value or to the hereditament) after 1 April 2021 will be ignored for the purposes of eligibility.
• Local Authorities are not required to adjust, pay or recover grants where the rating list is subsequently amended retrospectively to 1 April 2021.
• in cases where it was factually clear to the Local Authority that on 1 April 2021 the rating list was inaccurate on that date, Local Authorities may withhold the grant and/or award the grant based on their view of who would have been entitled to the grant had the list been accurate. This is entirely at the discretion of the Local Authority and only intended to prevent manifest errors.
• businesses will be eligible for this support from 1 April 2021 and Local Authorities cannot make payments before this date.
• Local Authorities are responsible for determining whether businesses are entitled to a grant under the non-essential retail thresholds, or under the hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym business thresholds.
• Covid-19 Business Support Grants are subject to tax and should be included in businesses tax returns to HMRC
• subject to State Subsidy limits, businesses will be entitled to receive a grant for each eligible hereditament (property) within the restricted area. So businesses can receive more than one grant where they have more than one eligible hereditament / property 
• businesses which have already received grant payments that equal the maximum levels of State Subsidy permitted under the new subsidy allowances established for the COVID-19 business grants schemes, on the basis of the principles set out in Article 3.4 of the Trade Cooperation Agreement (TCA) with the EU, cannot receive a grant. For the sake of clarity, state subsidy up to £1.935m can be granted under the Covid-19 Business Grant Allowance agreed under the TCA. Where an applicant has reached its subsidy limit under COVID-19 Business Grant Allowance agreement, it may be able to access a further allowance of funding under the TCA rules of up to £9m per single economic actor, provided specific conditions are met. Details can be found on the Gov.uk website
• for the avoidance of doubt, businesses that were in administration, are insolvent or where a striking-off notice has been made are not eligible for funding under this scheme.