Huntingdonshire District Council has received Government funding and is now actively checking the eligibility of local businesses for the Restart Grant Scheme.

This comes after the recent announcement detailing information about Business Restart Grants for eligible businesses who have been impacted by national restrictions,

Direct communication with businesses will be made shortly and previous recipients of the Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG) will not have to submit any further applications, explained HDC.

The Restart Grant scheme supports businesses in the non-essential retail, hospitality, leisure, personal care and accommodation sectors with a one-off grant, to reopen safely as COVID-19 restrictions are lifted.

Jo Lancaster, managing director of HDC, said: “Supporting businesses remains a priority for the council. We sympathise with how impacted businesses have been, trying to operate under lockdown restrictions, and we continue to work at pace to administer government grants to eligible businesses.”

The RESTART Grant scheme is a one-off grant payment to support businesses in relevant sectors who:

· Offer in-person services, where the main service/activity takes place in a fixed premises

· Are liable to pay Business Rates on their premises

· Businesses have to have been trading on April 1 2021

The aim is for payments to begin week commencing Monday April 19, following mandatory Government fraud checks.

Strand one of the RESTART Grant will support non-essential retail businesses with a one-off grant per hereditament (business premises) where the business was trading on April 1 2021.

Strand two of the RESTART Grant will support hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care, and gym business premises with a one-off grant per hereditament where the business was trading on April 1 2021.

For businesses who haven’t previously received any financial support, HDC is working on an application process and will continue to update information on its website, as it receives additional guidance from the Government.

For more information and to check the full criteria and to see if you are eligible for a grant, visit: COVID Business Grants - Huntingdonshire.gov.uk