• Businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors in England will be eligible for one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premises, plus more than £100 million discretionary funding will be made available for local authorities to support other businesses
• Government will also cover the cost of Statutory Sick Pay for Covid-related absences for small and medium-sized employers across the UK
• £30 million further funding will be made available through the Culture Recovery Fund, enabling more cultural organisations in England to apply for support during the winter

Recognising that the rise of the Omicron variant means some businesses are likely to struggle over the coming weeks, the government is providing one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premises for businesses in the hospitality and leisure sectors in England.

At what is often their most profitable time of year, many pubs and restaurants have seen cancellations and reduced footfall as people have responded to the rise in cases ahead of Christmas, with Hospitality UK reporting that many businesses have lost 40-60% of their December trade, often their most profitable month.

Around 200,000 businesses will be eligible for business grants which will be administered by local authorities and will be available in the coming weeks.

Given the uncertain situation faced by businesses, the government has chosen to provide generous grants, which are equivalent to the monthly cash grants provided to hospitality businesses when they were fully closed earlier this year, despite businesses now being still able to trade.

Prime Minister, Boris Johnson said:  “With the surge in Omicron cases, people are rightly exercising more caution as they go about their lives, which is impacting our hospitality, leisure and cultural sectors at what is typically the busiest time of the year.

That’s why we’re taking immediate action to help with an extra £1 billion in grants to these industries and reintroducing our Statutory Sick Pay Rebate Scheme.

I urge people across the country to please get boosted now to secure vital protection for yourselves, your loved ones and your communities.”

Responding to the Chancellor’s announcement East Midlands Chamber (Derbyshire, Nottinghamshire, Leicestershire) chief executive Scott Knowles said: “These measures will provide some welcome respite to many of those businesses that have been hit hardest by the latest Covid-19 measures.

“The Chancellor and his team has engaged with the British Chambers of Commerce in talks over the past week, considered the experiences of business communities including in the East Midlands, and the proposals we put to them.

“We are pleased the Chancellor heard our call for additional grant funding for hospitality and leisure businesses, which will provide some much-needed support in the face of this increasingly difficult trading period.

“The festive season is vital to the survival and prosperity of hospitality and leisure businesses in particular. Having missed out on the opportunity to maximise income last year, a second cancelled Christmas may have been devastating without the necessary financial backing.

“Clarity and speed will be needed to ensure these grants are paid out swiftly to help these hard-pressed firms weather the next few weeks.

“While these measures are a positive starting point, if restrictions persist or are tightened further, then we would need to see a wider support package, equal to the scale of any new measures, put in place.”

Chesterfield Borough Council will be announcing shortly how local businesses can access the funding.