The Government has announced an additional £330bn package of support for businesses in its second daily press conference on the continuing situation on coronavirus.
Measures announced by the Chancellor today include:
- The Government is providing Government backed and guaranteed loans totalling up to £330bn, equivalent to 15% of GDP. Any business that needs access to funding can get Government backed loans or credit at attractive terms.
- For SMEs, there will be an extension of the business interruption loan scheme. Instead of loans of £1.2m, loans will be offered for up to £5m with no interest due for the first six months. This scheme is due to be in place by the end of next week.
- There will be a cash grant of up to £25,000 for all local shops who have a rateable value of less than £51,000
- The Government is extending the business rates holiday to all businesses in the retail and hospitality sector, irrespective of their rateable value, for 12 months
- The £3,000 cash grant for businesses that are currently eligible for Small Business Rate Relief / Rural Rate Relief will be increased to £10,000.
- Mortgage lenders will offer a three month mortgage holiday for those individuals affected by coronavirus.
- The Chancellor will go much further in the coming days to develop new forms of employment support to help protect people’s jobs and their incomes.
- The Chancellor announced that he intends to take further legal action to allow the Government to outline further support where needed
ACS chief executive James Lowman said: “Local shops will be reassured by these new funds, enabling them to continue delivering essential products and services to communities and people in self isolation during the Coronavirus outbreak and beyond. But, some of these measures don’t apply to companies with a larger numbers of stores but who are facing similar operational and financial issues.
“We will be working closely with the Treasury and all government agencies to ensure that local shops can access these funds as quickly as possible.”
The measures outlined today are in addition to what was announced last week in the Budget.
ACS is updating members on a daily basis on the latest developments with regard to the coronavirus outbreak. The latest information and resources are available here: https://www.acs.org.uk/advice/covid-19-coronavirus
