Liverpool launches new £9.5m covid support fund to support businesses

A new £9.5 million fund to support small and micro businesses affected by Covid-19 will open for applications on Monday, 30 November.

The Hospitality, Leisure and Retail Grants scheme is part of Liverpool City Region Combined Authority’s £40m emergency support fund.

Almost 9,000 businesses in Liverpool have already received financial support since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the UK in March.

This new funding grant has been allocated to support small retail businesses that were forced to close due to the second national lockdown as well as the supply chain supporting the hospitality and leisure sector.

Included in this sector is non-essential retail, the self-employed, sole traders, licensed market traders and limited companies based at home who predominantly supply the hospitality and leisure sectors.

The scheme will be open for applications from 10am on Monday, 30 November and will close at 5pm on Friday, 11 December.

Business must also satisfy the following criteria:

• be based in the Liverpool City Region (covering the local authority areas of Halton, Knowsley, Liverpool, St Helens, Sefton and Wirral)
• have been trading since 11 March 2020
• have not been eligible or received a grant from a local authority from October 2020 onwards
• employ one or more people
• be able to demonstrate that its trading activities have been significantly and negatively impacted by COVID-19 restrictions
• be State Aid compliant and
• still be trading on or before 1 October 2020

The aim is to pay the grant by BACS within 10 working days of an application being approved.

Want to #SupportLocal? Check out our directory which features loads of independent businesses across the region that are open now❤️🏙️

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— The Guide Liverpool 🌇 (@TheGuideLpool) October 25, 2020

Note

The retail and leisure support scheme is open to small and micro businesses only. For small businesses that means having a turnover of not more than £10.2 million; a balance sheet total of no more than £5.1 million; and a staff headcount of no more than 50 people.

A micro business must satisfy two or more of the following requirements: have a turnover of no more than £632,000; a balance sheet total of not more than £316,000 and a staff headcount of no more than 10 people.

Mayor of Liverpool Joe Anderson said:

“Liverpool and its partner authorities in the City Region are working hard to support as many businesses as possible which have been affected by the pandemic.

“This latest round of funding will target a number of businesses who make a valuable contribution to our economy, particularly in the hospitality and leisure sector, and yet who have been able to access only restricted funding so far.

“We will continue to work with our colleagues as the Combined Authority to bring as much support as we are able to the region’s hard-pressed businesses.”

The grant application process and full criteria can be found here.