Mason Moore | Hinckley Reporter | 17 January 2021

LOCAL BUSINESSES affected by lockdown who have had to temporarily close their doors to customers, or those who have been affected by the Government restrictions through the months of December and January may be eligible to apply for several new grants.

Businesses in Hinckley and Bosworth that have been forced to temporarily close or severely affected by government restrictions in December and January may fit the criteria to apply for several new grants.

Hinckley and Bosworth Borough Council are currently administering several different grant schemes from the Government as a part of its COVID support for businesses.

Non-essential retailers and those in the leisure, personal care, sports facilities, and hospitality industries may apply, as the lockdown restrictions has seen them temporarily close their doors to customers.

The grants are fixed depending on the rateable value of the premises, including:

• A ‘tier four’ grant for the five days businesses were under tier four in late December
• National lockdown grant, with funding effective for six weeks from 5 January
• A one-off top up grant named the ‘closed lockdown’ payment

In order to help make applying simple for the business who are eligible, the Borough Council will contact all businesses who previously qualified for the local restrictions support grant back in November’s national restrictions.

These businesses will be invited to then confirm that their circumstances haven’t changed, and if they haven’t, they will be able to apply for the funds if they wish.

Once the declaration is received, the Council will use the details previously supplied to make any new grant payments the business is eligible for.

Any remaining businesses which were forced to temporarily close amidst November’s national lockdown and have not yet applied for the local restrictions grant are being urged to do so as soon as they can by clicking here.  

Council Leader Stuart Bray, said: “As new grants are made available to support our local businesses, the teams have been working hard to streamline the application process as far as possible under the strict and complex criteria we given in a bid to reduce the administrative burden and ensure our businesses receive the support they are entitled to.

“We are determined to get these grants out to our local businesses as soon as we possibly can at this difficult time to try to mitigate the impact of these restrictions on the local economy.”