A new £10m round of top-up grants will be made available for all 1500 businesses supported by the first two rounds of the Liverpool City Region’s emergency COVID-related support grants.
Depending on the size of the business, the top-up grants will be worth between £2,250 and £10,500. The funding is the latest in of a series announced by the Metro Mayor and Leaders and Acting Mayor of the region’s six local councils to support the local economy.
In response to the government putting the Liverpool City Region into Tier 3 back in October, the Combined Authority and local councils launched a £40m fund to support businesses operating in the leisure and hospitality sectors, which form a large part of the local economy.
This included a £9.5m fund, the first of its kind in the country, to support small and micro businesses working in leisure, hospitality and retail. This included funding for the self-employed, sole traders, home-based workers and their supply chains, many of whom have been excluded from government support since the pandemic started.
In a joint statement, the Leaders and Acting Mayor of the six City Region Local Authorities and Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, said:
“Local businesses have taken a battering over the past year, but we’ve been doing everything we can to help support and sustain them throughout the pandemic.
“We’ve already given out tens of millions of pounds to help keep 1500 local businesses afloat and, with the current lockdown, we know things are still tough for many. Today we’re making another £10m available to help safeguard people’s jobs and livelihoods through the next few months.
“We will also be announcing details of a further fund next week to help some of those who have not yet qualified for support.
“While the vaccine rollout continues apace, a return to something resembling normality is in sight. We just need to stick together and make it through the coming weeks and months.”
The additional payments will be made to businesses that received Hospitality and Leisure Grants (First Round: October 2020), and Expanded Hospitality, Leisure and Retail Grants (Second Round: November 2020). Businesses that meet these criteria will be contacted directly by their local council and will have to complete a simple form confirming their previous application details are still correct.
