Covid-19 Local Restrictions Support Grants for businesses

Local Restrictions Support Grants (LRSG)

Support for businesses forced to close

You may be eligible to claim a Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) if your business was mandated to close, or if you've had to change the nature of your business* due to local or national lockdown periods.

*If you are a restaurant, pub or non-essential retail business and your business has continued to operate using take-away, click and collect or online with delivery services, you will still be entitled to a grant as the main (substantive) purpose of your business has had to close.

Details of businesses required to close can be found on our advice for businesses, self-employed and employers page and the Gov.uk website.

Payment amounts

If your business is eligible you'll receive the following grant payments for each relevant period

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply for a Local Restriction Support Grant, your business must:

• occupy commercial property located in the borough of Gateshead
• have been active at the time the relevant restrictions were introduced

• confirm, and provide evidence upon requested, that they suffered from reduced demand and were severely impacted by the restrictions

Please note:  Unlike the previous national lockdown grant scheme, businesses that occupy properties with a rateable value of more than £51,000 may apply.

Ineligible businesses

• Business not required to close and that can continue to trade because they do not depend on providing direct in person services from premises (for example accountants) are not eligible for a Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed) payment.
• Business that were already closed or have chosen to close but are not legally required to, are not eligible for a Local Restrictions support Grant (Closed) payment.
• Businesses without ongoing fixed commercial property costs including home based businesses operating from domestic properties, self-catering and accommodation providers not registered for business rates or in the rating list, or not registered with the Council's Licensing Team
• Businesses that are insolvent, in administration, or where a striking-off notice has been made
• Business that have already received the maximum level of public subsidy permissible public subsidy permissible.

Grant awards 

• Grant awards will be made at the levels set out above A grant may be paid for each qualifying property from which an applicant business operates eligible activity.
• Payments will be made directly to approved recipients' bank accounts by electronic transfer. 
• Beneficiaries will receive written confirmation stating that by accepting the grant payment, the business confirms that they are eligible for the grant scheme, including that any payments accepted will be subject to state aid requirements.

Other information

• Grant income received by a business is taxable. Only businesses which make an overall profit once grant income is included will be subject to tax.
• The information will be used by the Government monitoring and evaluation purposes, as well as for prevention and detection of fraud and/or other criminal activities, as well as for suspension and/or recovery of the grant where necessary. The Government may share information for the purpose of counter fraud activity and debt recovery with other government departments, agencies and/or local authorities.
• The Government and the Council will not accept deliberate manipulation and fraud and any business caught falsifying their records to gain grant money will face prosecution and any funding issued will be subject to claw back, as may any grants paid in error.
• Subsidy Allowance rules and requirements apply to this grant scheme.
• We do not accept any liability for any issues that may arise for businesses because of applying for, receiving, or not receiving grant payments under this scheme.
• There is no appeal process.

Subsidy Allowances

The EU State aid rules no longer apply to subsidies granted in the UK following the end of the transition period, which ended on 31 December 2020. Nevertheless, the United Kingdom remains bound by its international commitments, including subsidy obligations set out in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) with the EU. 

From Thursday 4 March COVID-19 business grants are provided under one of the following subsidies: Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance, the COVID-19 Business Grant Allowance and the COVID-19 Business Grant Special Allowance. 

Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance enables an applicant to receive up to a maximum allowance of 325,000 Special Drawing Rights, which is the equivalent of £335,000 as at 2 March 2021, over any three consecutive fiscal years.

Where the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance has been reached, grants may be paid under the COVID-19 Business Grant Allowance. For the purposes of these scheme rules, this allowance is £1,600,000. This allowance includes any grants previously received under the COVID-19 business grant schemes and any State aid previously received under the European Commission's Temporary Framework. 

Where an applicant has reached its limit under the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance and COVID-19 Business Grant Allowance, it may be able to access a further allowance of funding under these scheme rules of up to £9m subject to certain conditions.

Visit the Gov.uk website for full details. 

Applicants will be required to declare they were not an undertaking in difficulty on 31 December 2019.