This is the latest information and help provided by the government for businesses. Contains public sector information licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0.
Please note these solutions may not work for you and your business if so there may be other options
We would urge you to investigate the following options first in all instances.
Business support scheme information
Each of the introductions below can help you find what you are looking for. They provide information on financial support packages for businesses, advice on how to operate your business, support for your employees, for example workers’ wage costs and information on changes to planning and regulations.
Coronavirus Bounce Back Loan
What is it?
This scheme will help small and medium-sized businesses affected by coronavirus (COVID-19) to apply for loans of up to £50,000.
The Bounce Back Loan scheme will help small and medium-sized businesses to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000.
The government will guarantee 100% of the loan and there won’t be any fees or interest to pay for the first 12 months.
Loan terms will be up to 6 years. No repayments will be due during the first 12 months. The government will work with lenders to agree a low rate of interest for the remaining period of the loan.
Find out more about the Bounce Back Loan
Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS)
What is it?
The temporary Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme will support small and medium-sized businesses with access to loans, overdrafts, invoice finance and asset finance of up to £5 million and for up to six years.
The Government will also make a Business Interruption Payment to cover the first 12 months of interest payments and any lender-levied fees, so smaller businesses will benefit from no upfront costs and lower initial repayments.
The government will provide lenders with a guarantee of 80% on each loan (subject to pre-lender cap on claims) to give lenders further confidence in continuing to provide finance to SMEs. The scheme will be delivered through commercial lenders, backed by the Government-owned British Business Bank.
There are 40 accredited lenders able to offer the scheme, including all the major banks.
Self-employment Income Support Scheme
What is it?
The Self-employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) will support self-employed individuals (including members of partnerships) whose income has been negatively impacted by COVID-19. The scheme will provide a grant to self-employed individuals or partnerships, worth 80% of their profits up to a cap of £2,500 per month.
HMRC will use the average profits from tax returns in 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19 to calculate the size of the grant. The scheme will be open to those where the majority of their income comes from self-employment and who have profits of less than £50,000. The scheme will be open for an initial three months with people able to make their first claim by the beginning of June.
Business rates holiday for retail, hospitality and leisure
What is it?
Businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors in England will not have to pay business rates for the 2020-21 tax year. Businesses that received the retail discount in the 2019-20 tax year will be rebilled by their local authority as soon as possible.
Cash grant for retail, hospitality and leisure
What is it?
If your business is in the retail, hospitality or leisure sector, you will receive a cash grant of up to £25,000 per property.
Businesses in these sectors with a rateable value of under £15,000 will receive a grant of £10,000.
Businesses with a rateable value of between £15,001 and £51,000 will receive a grant of £25,000.
Job retention scheme (furloughing)
What is it?
Under the coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, all UK employers with a PAYE scheme will be able to access support to continue paying part of their employees’ salary for those that would otherwise have been laid off during this crisis. This applies to employees who have been asked to stop working, but who are being kept on the pay roll, otherwise described as ‘furloughed workers’. HMRC will reimburse 80% of their wages, up to £2,500 per month. This is to safeguard workers from being made redundant. The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will cover the cost of wages backdated to March 1st and is initially open for 3 months, but will be extended if necessary. This scheme is set to go live on the 20th April 2020.
The Government issued further clarification about this scheme on 4 April – Read the guidance.
The Government has extended the start date for eligibility for furlough to 19 March 2020.
Small business grant funding
What is it?
The Government is providing additional funding for Local Authorities to support small businesses that already pay little or no business rates because of small business rate relief (SBRR), rural rate relief (RRR) and tapered relief. This will provide a one-off grant of £10,000 to eligible businesses to help meet their ongoing business costs.
Find out more about Small Business Grant Funding
Statutory sick pay rebate
What is it?
The Government will bring forward legislation to allow small and medium-sized businesses to reclaim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) paid for staff sickness absence due to coronavirus. This refund will cover up to 2 weeks’ SSP per eligible employee who has been off work because of coronavirus.
HMRC Time to Pay
What is it?
All businesses and self-employed people in financial distress, and with outstanding tax liabilities, may be eligible to receive support with their tax affairs through HMRC’s Time To Pay service. These arrangements are agreed on a case-by-case basis and are tailored to individual circumstances and liabilities.
Covid-19 Corporate Financing Facility
What is it?
The new Covid-19 Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) means that the Bank of England will buy short-term debt from larger companies. This will support companies which are fundamentally strong, but have been affected by a short-term funding squeeze. It will also support corporate finance markets overall and ease the supply of credit to all firms. The scheme will be funded by central bank reserves – in line with other Bank of England market operations. It will operate for at least 12 months, and for as long as steps are needed to relieve cash flow pressures on firms that make a material contribution to the UK economy.
Business rates holiday for nurseries
What is it?
Nurseries in England* do not have to pay business rates for the 2020-21 tax year.
VAT deferral
What is it?
We will support businesses by deferring Valued Added Tax (VAT) payments for 3 months.
Income tax deferral for the self-employed
What is it?
If you are self-employed, Income Tax payments due in July 2020 under the Self-Assessment system will be deferred to January 2021.
Other sources of support
This is a difficult time for many businesses and workers – and the response from the Government is unprecedented. We hope you have found the information on this site helpful. In some cases, we know the detail you need is not quite yet available, but we are doing all we can to get up-to-date information to you as soon as possible.
What if these don’t or can’t work?
Please note these solutions may not work for you and your business if so there may be other options
We would urge you to investigate the above options first in all instances.
We're here for you.
As a dedicated team of Advisers and Consultants our aim is to help you fix the issues and solve the problems within your business.
Find out more →
