Updated 8 December 2020

The Government has provided Dacorum Borough Council  with £3.1 million to be used to support businesses across the financial years 2020-2021 and 2021-2022 (up until March 2022).

They have considered the guidance provided by Government and decided to use most of this funding to provide direct grant support to local businesses, and to allocate £300,000 to be used for wider business support to assist local economic recovery.

Direct grant awards

They will be using this fund to provide support to businesses that have not qualified under the terms of previous grant schemes, but which have suffered significant financial losses due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic.

To start with, they will provide grants to businesses in the following sectors:

• the supply chain to the retail, hospitality and leisure sector
• the supply chain to the events sector
• registered childcare providers
• market traders with a regular stall in the borough of Dacorum
• licensed taxi drivers, with a current licence and hire/reward insurance
• a taxi office
• a business that was ordered to close under national lockdown rules, but which is not liable for business rates for the premises it operates from.
• The amount of grant will vary according to the business sector, and the size of the business – based on both the number of employees and the business property costs.

Details of the amounts are shown below and can be viewed on the DBC website here

 

Business sector	Employee numbers			Fixed property costs (Rateable Value if the business has one, otherwise annual business rent costs)
	Less than 10	10 to 49	50 or more	None	Less than or exactly £15,000	More than £15,000 but less than £51,000	Exactly or more than £51,000
Supply chain – events, entertainment	£3,000	£4,000	£6,000	£0	£2,000	£3,000	£4,000
Supply chain – retail, hospitality, leisure	£2,000	£3,000	£5,000	£0	£1,000	£2,000	£3,000
Taxi office	£1,000	£1,500	£2,000	£0	£1,000	£1,500	£2,000
Childcare provider	£1,000	£1,500	£2,000	£0	£350	£400	£500
Other business ordered to close under national lockdown rules, but not a business ratepayer	£1,000	£1,500	£2,000	£0	£350	£400	£500
Additional fixed grants	Flat rate
Market trader	£1,000
Licensed taxi driver	£750

 

There are a number of other conditions that a business must meet in order to qualify for a grant:

• it must have been trading as a going concern on 4 November 2020 (the day before the national lockdown started)
• it must not be insolvent, in liquidation or have had a striking-off notice issued
• it must be compliant with State Aid rules when receiving the grant
• it must have suffered significant financial losses due to the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic
• it must not be using the grant as a wage supplement, but can be used to support a business that a self-employed person runs
• it must provide any information requested by us to validate information provided within the application. This information may be requested during the application process, or as part of follow-up checks after payment has been made.

 

How to apply

Applications for this grant can be made until 9am on Monday 4 January 2021, or when funds are exhausted. They will then analyse and review the details of the grants we’ve awarded, and consider which business sectors could be supported in future application windows depending on the funding still available.

Apply here

To complete the application, you will need detailed information about your business, including:

• the number of employees
• the company registration number, partnership reference and unique taxpayer reference number
• business bank account. You will need to upload a recent bank statement
• for a childcare provider – the Ofsted registration number
• for a market trader – details of where your regular stall within Dacorum is
• for a taxi driver – your taxi licence number. You will need to upload a copy of your insurance certificate showing hire/reward insurance valid on 4 November 2020
• if you receive a business rates bill, the account reference number and rateable value
• if you do not receive a business rates bill, details of any business rental costs. You will need to upload a copy of your business rental agreement.

Published on: December 8, 2020