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National Lockdown Special Edition
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Following the Prime Minister’s announcement on Monday, England is now under National Lockdown. Please see below for what this means for your business in Westminster:
- Non-essential retail must remain closed
- Personal care businesses, such as hairdressers, must remain closed
- Indoor gyms and leisure centres must remain closed
- People must work from home if they can, but may travel to work if this is not possible, for example in the construction and manufacturing sectors
- Travel abroad is not allowed apart from limited exceptions, such as for work purposes.
Cases of coronavirus continue to rise across London. It’s vital that we all play our part in limiting the spread of coronavirus by:
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Businesses and venues which must close: To reduce social contact, the regulations require some businesses to close and impose restrictions on how some businesses provide goods and services.
What businesses must close?
- Non-essential retail, such as clothing and homeware stores - these venues can continue to be able to operate click-and-collect (where goods are pre-ordered and collected off the premises) and delivery services
- Hospitality venues such as cafes, restaurants, pubs, bars and social clubs; with the exception of providing food and non-alcoholic drink for takeaway (until 11pm), click-and-collect, drive-through or delivery
- Accommodation such as hotels, hostels, guest houses
- Leisure and sports facilities such as leisure centres and indoor gyms
- Entertainment venues such as theatres, concert halls, cinemas
- Personal care facilities such as hair, beauty, tanning and nail salons
What businesses can remain open?
- Essential retail such as food shops, supermarkets, pharmacies, garden centres, building merchants and suppliers of building products and off-licences
- Market stalls selling essential retail may also stay open
- Businesses providing repair services may also stay open, where they primarily offer repair services
- Petrol stations, automatic (but not manual) car washes, vehicle repair and MOT services, bicycle shops, and taxi and vehicle hire businesses
- Banks, building societies, post offices, short-term loan providers and money transfer businesses
- Funeral directors
- Laundrettes and dry cleaners
- Medical and dental services
The full list of these businesses can be found in the guidance on closing certain businesses and venues in England.
Other changes that may affect your business:
Sale of Alcohol: Under National Lockdown measures, cafés, bars and restaurants selling food to takeaway may no longer sell alcohol to go, only non-alcoholic drinks. Alcoholic drinks may still be sold for delivery. This is one significant difference in the way in which licensed premises can operate compared to the Tier 4 restrictions. To find out more on this change please visit .GOV guidance.
Construction noise: With National Lockdown measures in place it's important to remember that many communities will have more people home during traditional working hours. While construction sites are required to comply with a range of noise abatement measures, it's important to make additional considerations for communities that are working from home and keep noise limited. The Council provides a 24-hour response to all complaints of noise, dust and smoke from building sites within 45 minutes of receipt of the complaint. For more information on noise and pollutants on constructions sites visit our website.
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Support for your Business
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Government’s Business Support Package 2021: On 5 January 2021, Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a range of further support for businesses including one-off top up grants for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses worth up to £9,000 per property and a £594 million discretionary fund for Local Authorities to support other impacted businesses.
- £4,000 for businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or under
- £6,000 for businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000
- £9,000 for businesses with a rateable value of over £51,000
The Council is awaiting further guidance from the Government on these new schemes and there is no need to contact us. When we have further information regarding eligibility and how these grants will be distributed, the information will be published on our website and within this weekly business e-newsletter.
We expect that the payment of these grants is likely to require the completion and return of the grant application form that the council sent to all businesses by post during the November lockdown. We urge all businesses to return this form as soon as possible. If you are a hospitality, hotel, bed & breakfast, leisure business or a non-essential retail business and you have not received an application form for the November National Lockdown grant, please e-mail the council at westminster.nndr@secure.capita.co.uk. Please include the word “Grant” and your business rate customer account number in the subject line of the e-mail.
We recognise that this is an incredibly challenging time for our business community and are working as fast as we can to ensure that the financial support provided by the Government reaches businesses who are eligible. Further details can be found at GOV.UK by clicking this link.
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Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG Scheme): The allocation for these funds from central Government has been based on the number of residents, not the number of businesses per borough and Westminster’s allocation is limited to only £5.2m. The Council leader, Cllr Rachael Robathan, continues to advocate central Government for a range of support to help businesses. You can read her most recent statement by clicking here.
Under the ARG scheme, there are a maximum of 2600 grant awards available based on one award of £2000 per business, rather than per business premises. The Council has determined that the following businesses will be eligible to apply for a grant:
- Non-ratepayers in non-essential retail, leisure, personal care, sports facilities and hospitality business (including, hotel and bed & breakfast accommodation & leisure businesses ) which are effectively forced to close or have been severely impacted by the restrictions and have not previously received a Discretionary Grant Fund award from the Council.
- Ratepayer or non-ratepayer businesses that supply (first tier) the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors and that have not received any other business grants from the Council.
- Ratepayer or non-ratepayer businesses in the events sector that have not received any other business grants from the Council.
The scheme will be administered by the Council’s Business Unit through 3 rounds of applications. Due to the limited funding available to the Council, payment will be on a first come first served basis to eligible businesses that provide valid application forms together with all of the requested documentary evidence.
Business who do not submit the relevant documents in time before each round closes can re-submit their application within the subsequent round. Please only submit an application to the City Council if you believe your business falls under one of the three listed business categories.
Further application information will be posted next week and the online application process will be made live on 14 January on the Council's website.
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Government Loan Schemes Extended: The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans and Bounce Back Loan Scheme have both been extended for applications until 31 March 2021.
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Self-employment Income Support Grant: This scheme has been extended. It aims to support self-employed individuals whose income has been negatively impacted by COVID-19. The scheme extension provides support to the self-employed in the form of two grants, each available for three month periods covering November 2020 to January 2021 and February 2021 to April 2021. For more information on the scheme please visit the GOV.UK website.
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London Business Hub Property Advice Service programme: Are you a small business looking for free advice on business rates, understanding your lease, landlord negotiations and finding commercial premises in these troubling times? London Business Hub are running a series of free webinars and one-to-ones.
- Webinar dates: 12 January, 9 February & 9 March 2021. Time: 10.30AM-12.30PM.
- To register or to find more information please visit the London Business Hub website.
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For more information on ways Westminster City Council, the UK Government and the community can help, please follow the links below:
Whilst we are dealing with a greater volume of queries than usual, if you do need bespoke advice, don’t hesitate to contact our Business Unit as they may be able to help. |
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