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Covid grants open for Birmingham businesses

Birmingham businesses can now apply for the latest round of Covid grants.

The grants, available from Birmingham City Council, are for those severely impacted or required to close due to Covid measures before and during lockdown in November, alongside sector specific support for nightclubs and adult entertainment venues.

In order to apply, businesses will need to create a BRUM Account (click here), which helps Birmingham City Council to speed up processing of applications and payment of future grants under the new three-tier system. It will also give businesses access to services (such as their business rate account) online.  

To access the grants businesses complete one short form, find out more and apply here.

The grants available for businesses based in the Birmingham City Council area include:

  • Grants worth between £984 per 28 days to £2,100 per 28 days for businesses in the hospitality, hotel, bed and breakfast and leisure sectors affected by the Tier two local restrictions which were in place from 14 October to 4 November 2020
  • Grants worth between £1,334 and £3,000 for businesses mandated to close by Government between the 5 November to 2 December 2020, including non-essential retail, leisure, personal care, sports facilities and hospitality businesses
  • Equivalent support for businesses outside of those sectors or who otherwise do not qualify for those schemes that have been severely impacted due to government restrictions through a discretionary grant scheme

Birmingham is the latest local authority in the Greater Birmingham area to open their grant schemes for applications. Grant schemes are also currently open for applications in the Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council, Cannock Chase Council and East Staffordshire Borough Council areas (click here for more information).

To support local businesses with their applications and accessing other finance, the GBCC are partnering with local authorities and FinPoint on a series of free webinars:

  • 1 December, 11am-11:45am: Birmingham City Council (click here)
  • 3 December, 9am-9:45am: Lichfield District Council (click here)  
  • 4 December, 9:30am-10:15am: Tamworth Borough Council (click here)
  • For a recording of the webinar on grants available in the Solihull Metropolitan Borough Council area click here

Henrietta Brealey (pictured), director of policy and strategic relationships at Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, encouraged businesses to take advantage of the grant support available, but added that the Chamber is still working with local authorities to help target resources to support businesses.

 

She  said: “I would absolutely encourage all businesses in Greater Birmingham that can to make the most of the grant support that is available. These are unrestricted grants - effectively cash to help your business manage through this period and a number of local authorities have made significant efforts to simplify the application process and apply learning from previous schemes.

 

“However, I know that there will be many businesses reading this, particularly in the hospitality, visitor economy or live events related industries, who will be thinking that the value of the grants available simply will not go far enough.

“We are proactively lobbying the government to raise the value of the grants available for businesses impacted by the enhanced tiers system coming next month - particularly for those with higher rateable value (and higher rental obligations) and other fixed overheads.

“We are also working closely with local authorities across the region to best target the very limited resource that’s available to them to support businesses through this turbulent period.

“The upcoming webinar series will be a great opportunity for businesses to find out more about the support available both through the grants and commercial finance options.

“If your business is in need and the support currently available will not go far enough, please do reach out to us so that we can best target our lobbying efforts.”

  • To share the impact Covid-19 is having on your business and the support that would best benefit your organisation please contact KBM@Birmingham-Chamber.com.
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