20 Apr Harlow Council has now given out £6m in grants to support 469 local businesses
Harlow Council has now given out £5,970,000 in grants to support 469 local businesses during the coronavirus crisis.
Grants are being processed as soon as businesses make contact with the council following letters and emails sent to 840 businesses on 8 April. Grants continued to be processed over the weekend by the council’s Revenues & Benefits team and will continue to be processed this week as soon as the remaining businesses submit details using the online form. Grants of £425,000 were processed yesterday (19 April 2020).
The council has issued over half of the £11m allocated to it by the government with grants so far given to 56% of businesses identified as eligible for small business grant funding or the retail, hospitality and leisure grants.
In order to pay out the grants the council needed to contact all business ratepayers eligible for the funding. This was to collect bank and other details where they were not held and to ensure that the money would get to the right businesses. The council continues to review its records to see if any more businesses are eligible and this week staff will contact those businesses who are yet to respond.
The small business grant funding is £10,000 per business with the cash grants for the retail, hospitality and leisure providing businesses with up to £25,000 per property.
Any business, which has not received a letter or an email and thinks it should be eligible for the government grant should check their eligibility at https://www.businesssupport.gov.uk/small-business-grant-funding/ and https://www.businesssupport.gov.uk/cash-grant-for-retail-hospitality-and-leisure/ Businesses can also view their rate account by signing up for an online My Revs & Bens account at https://selfserve.harlow.gov.uk/MyAccounts
If a business in receipt of either Small Business Rate Relief or Retail Hospitality and Leisure Relief has not received communication from the Council but thinks it fully meets the criteria set out by the government they should email business.rates@harlow.gov.uk. When emailing business must provide details showing why they believe they are eligible for a grant. The council will respond as soon as it can to these enquiries.
