Published on Friday 27 March 2020
BCP Council has received £128m from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government to provide grants to support local business rate payers affected by coronavirus (COVID19).
The grants will be given by the Council to businesses that are considered eligible. If your business is eligible, you will be required to fill in a form. This is available on the Council’s website.
In addition to the grant, the Council will provide discretionary rate relief for many businesses in line with the Chancellors announcements in the Budget and on 17 March. In respect of the award of rate relief there will be no requirement for businesses to apply and the council will be contacting all businesses which fit the Government’s eligibility criteria directly. This will take place in the next few days via letter sent to your business premises.
Councillor Vikki Slade, Leader of BCP Council, said:
"We are committed to supporting our local business community and we hope this announcement will offer some welcome relief to retail, hospitality and leisure businesses during this extremely challenging time. Over the coming days our Business Rates Team will be working very hard to ensure everyone who is able to benefit from this is contacted as soon as possible. We will continue to lobby the Government for further support.’’
To ensure no fraudulent claims are made, businesses will be requested to provide information to enable payment of the Grant through forms to fill in and return. In some cases additional checks may be necessary to confirm eligibility.
For more information, please visit: www.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/News/News-Features/COVID19/Employers-Employees-and-Businesses/Financial-Support.aspx