Restart Grants for English businesses and ARG

Government has now published its guidance for Local Authorities on the Restart Grants and the new £425m ARG grant (England). 

Restart Grants

The restart grants are available to non-essential retail businesses and businesses in the hospitality, accommodation and leisure sectors. The rates that apply for such businesses are:

  • £8,000 for businesses with a rateable value of up to and exactly £15,000
  • £12,000 for businesses with a rateable vale over £15,000 and less that £51,000
  • £18,000 for businesses with a rateable value of exactly £51,000 or greater

There is a full list of the types of business that are eligible for the grants in Annex C of the guidance, but the general definitions include:

  • Accommodation i.e. a business whose main lodging provision is used for holiday, travel and other purposes
  • Hospitality i.e. a business whose main function is to provide a venue for the consumption and sale of food and drink

You can find the Restart Grant information here.

ARG guidance

The Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) guidance has been updated to include the additional £425m announced in the Budget. This funding will be allocated from 1 April 2021.

While the conditions for the new ARG round are essentially the same as previously, it is worth noting that previous guidance for the Additional Restrictions Grant indicated that businesses must have been trading before relevant restrictions were introduced in order to be eligible. This is no longer the case – all businesses that are trading and meet other eligibility criteria may apply to receive funding under this scheme.

To speed up allocations, Local Authorities (LAs) have until 30 June 2021 to prove that they have spent or made a validated attempt to spend 100% of their first two ARG allocations.

The guidance for LAs can be found here.