Discretionary grant available for Luton leisure and hospitality businesses impacted by coronavirus

A discretionary grant has been made available for businesses in Luton impacted by coronavirus restrictions.
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The Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) has been developed by Luton Borough Council for businesses in the retail, hospitality, travel and leisure sectors, or businesses in the events and aviation sector.

It is targeted at local firms which have not been able to receive help from the Local Restriction Support Grants (LRSG).

The scheme will also help businesses outside the business rates system. This will include taxi/private hire drivers who have also been severely impacted but have not qualified for previous grant funding and this group will receive a one off grant payment of £500 if they live and are licensed in Luton. There will also be some set aside for business support programmes.

Luton town hallLuton town hall
Luton town hall

These one off payments have been split into three levels with a £5,000 award given to businesses most impacted, £3,000 given to those lesser impacted and businesses with minor impact will receive £1,000.

In the first round eligible businesses can apply until 24 December 2020. Further rounds will be made available, if and when further national or local Tier 3 restrictions are enforced if funding is still available.

Cllr Sian Timoney, portfolio holder for economic development, said: “It continues to be an incredibly tough time for businesses and so the introduction of more grant schemes for those really impacted is some positive news.

“We have done our best with the discretionary grant to create a scheme for businesses that weren’t eligible for other government grants and so have missed out on vital funds.

"The other two grants that have launched this week are for those forced to close or those who have had their businesses impacted due to the situation we find ourselves in because of the new tier system.

"I really hope it will help many businesses in that category be able to ride the storm as we know they are really struggling."

There are three other grants available which will support businesses affected by the new Tier system restrictions. LRSG ‘open’ is targeted at hospitality, hotel, bed and breakfast and leisure businesses that have not been legally required to close but which are severely impacted by the new restrictions. The LRSG ‘closed’ is for businesses that were open as usual and then required to close under the new restrictions. There is also a grant of £1,000 available soon for pubs that do not serve food so are not able to open and more details will follow once we’ve had details from central government.

You can check eligibility and apply for the three grants through the Business Advice section of the council’s website. You can apply for one grant only.

More information including eligibility on the ARGMore information including eligibility on the LRSG