Statement from the leader of Leeds City Council in response to the government’s latest announcement on the top up to local business fund.

The government revealed details over the weekend of a discretionary fund to accommodate certain small businesses previously outside the scope of the original business grant funds scheme.

The additional fund is aimed at small businesses, with under 50 employees, with ongoing fixed property-related costs. Local authorities are being asked to prioritise businesses in shared spaces and small charity properties amongst others that would meet the criteria for Small Business Rates Relief, and bed and breakfasts that pay council tax rather than business rates. Any business applying for the fund must be able to demonstrate that they have seen a significant drop of income due to Coronavirus restriction measures.

Local authorities will be administering the scheme once further detail and amounts per authority are revealed by the government. Leeds City Council will make a further announcement on this in the coming days once further details have been finalised.

The scheme is currently not available or open for businesses to apply to.

Leader of Leeds City Council, Councillor Judith Blake said;

“We welcome the latest round of top up business support funding from the government for those that may have been missed so far, however it is only around 5% of the total amount we had for the initial support scheme. We have been working closely with the Core City group and business representative groups to highlight these issues with the government and are pleased that we have made progress on this issue.

“We know how key it is that these payments are made quickly, as cashflow still remains the biggest issue for businesses during this pandemic.  We are currently reviewing the details of this announcement and looking at how we best implement and administer the money with our counterparts across West Yorkshire before the scheme officially opens for applications.

“For now we would ask businesses to be patient as we look to finalise the payments on the original business support scheme and we will issue details as soon as possible about applying for the new scheme.”

To stay up to date on the latest information available for businesses visit https://www.leeds.gov.uk/coronavirus/business