NEW 2021 business grant portal open at NHDC

Some good news!

1. You may be aware that HMRC announced a new grant payment scheme for businesses forced to close or restrict their business in the new lockdown in January. For the six weeks from 5th Jan to 15th Feb 2021. This period is called the ‘National Restrictions Period’. It mainly affects businesses in hospitality, retail and leisure. But it’s worth applying to see if you qualify for a discretionary grant if you feel you might be eligible.

2. The third SEISS (self employment scheme payment) portal is about to close on Friday, so get your applications in now if you’ve not done so already. 

3. There’s also links to the grants for periods at the end of last year where there were restrictions from the Tier system, before national lockdown.

If your business does not pay business rates, they usually have a discretionary fund for business forced to close who ‘work from home’ ordinarily too, so it’s well worth applying and getting in the system, if you’ve not attempted before. You may be considered under the Additional Restrictions Grant scheme.

4. New special sections are available for taxi drivers and ‘wet led’ pubs – ie boozers, for example.

5. Please check this list of specific grants to see if you’re eligible :

  • ‘Local Restrictions Support Grant’ for the period we were in Tier 4 from 19th December to 4th January
  • ‘Local Restrictions Support Grant’ from 5th November to 2nd December
  • ‘Additional Restrictions Grants’ for 5th November to 2nd December.

If you’ve not applied for a grant recently and remain affected by the situation (most of us then!), you would do well to apply. If you’re not in North Herts District Council, check the website of your local council pronto.

If you’ve not applied for any grants/funding this time around for the national lockdown in particular, the portal opened at the end of last week. Here’s the relevant info and links for North Herts District Council. Please check your local council if you are not in our area.

Ongoing support:

Government support programmes (including help for business ratepayers, statutory sick pay, business liquidity loans, loan support for larger firms and with HMRC):

Local Restrictions Support Grants

Business ratepayers that have been mandated to close during the national lockdown (5 November to 2 December) can apply for a Local Restrictions Support Grant.

A full list of premises mandated to close is available on the GOV.UK website.

To be eligible, you must be a business ratepayer and you must be mandated to close.

BUT IF YOU DON’T PAY RATES BUT HAVE TO CLOSE, YOU CAN APPLY FOR THE  Additional Restrictions Grant scheme.

If you are a rate payer, before you start the application process you will need:

  1. your Business Rate Account Bill – both your Property Reference and Business Rate Account numbers are a mandatory requirement
  2. proof of ID – for a company this can be trading accounts (profit and loss/balance sheet), for a sole trader this can be your passport or driving licence
  3. proof that you were trading prior to the restriction – such as delivery notices, stock invoices, appointment registers
  4. a current business bank account statement – this is the account the grant will be paid in to
  5. proof that you were in occupation – two utility bills

All supporting documents must be no more than 3 months old. Your bank statement must relate to your business as we will only pay successful applications into a business bank account.

You may have provided some of this information for previous grants, but you will need to supply new documents.

Apply for a Local Restrictions Support Grant

We will keep you updated on your application by email. Log back in to the portal to check on the progress of your application or to upload further documentation if requested.

If you have any technical difficulties with the application form, please contact us on revenues@north-herts.gov.uk. We cannot accept applications sent to this email address.

New Local Restriction Support Grants

New grant schemes will be available soon for eligible businesses that are open and those that remain closed. We are working hard to formalise these new schemes. Check back soon for further updates.

Business rates relief for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure

Businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors will not have to pay business rates for the 2020 to 2021 tax year.

Direct debit payments are being stopped for those businesses that have received their annual bill and will now not have to pay any business rates because of the Expanded Retail Discount Scheme.

We will send revised bills to reflect the fact that no payments are due to those businesses affected by this as soon as possible.

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