Public Houses: Small Business Grants Fund

(asked on 6th May 2020) - View Source

Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether pub businesses with fewer than 50 employees are eligible for payments from the discretionary fund for local authorities announced on 2 May 2020.


Answered by
Paul Scully Portrait
Paul Scully
This question was answered on 12th May 2020

On 1 May 2020 the Business Secretary announced that up to £617 million is being made available to Local Authorities in England to allow them to provide discretionary grants. This is an additional 5% uplift to the £12.33 billion funding previously announced for the Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHLGF).

The additional Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund is aimed at small businesses with ongoing fixed property-related costs but not liable for business rates or rates reliefs.

Pub businesses with less than 50 employees, not directly liable for business rates and thus not eligible for either Small Business or Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants, could be in-scope subject to them being in business on 11th March, not having received any other Government grant funding, having ongoing relatively high fixed building-related costs (e.g. rent and service charges) and experiencing a significant loss of income due Covid-19 impacts. Local authorities will run these schemes locally.

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