Liverpool businesses urged to apply for grants

Liverpool City Council is urging small businesses to apply for a coronavirus support grant.

And Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor, Steve Rotheram, has today (April 15), launched a £400,000 package to support the music, film and TV industries.

The city council launched a grant support scheme at the end of March and has now processed almost all the applications it has received, providing £36m to businesses.

Council finance staff worked through the Easter Bank Holiday weekend to ensure hundreds of local companies will get the money they need this week.

The team have been processing an average of 400 applications a day and there is currently no backlog in the process. By late on Tuesday, April 14, they had helped 2,875 businesses.

City businesses which have not yet applied are urged to go to www.liverpool.gov.uk/covidbusiness to secure the emergency funding.

All businesses, from any sector, with a rateable value of £15,000 or below are eligible to apply for a £10,000 grant.

To qualify they must have been receiving Small Business Rates Relief and need to provide a bank statement from the past three months.

For businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sector, with a rateable value between £15,000.01 and less than £51,000, they may qualify for a £25,000 grant.

Qualifying businesses include:

• shops
• cafes, restaurants, takeaways and drinking establishments
• cinemas, music venues and nightclubs
• petrol stations
• gyms, leisure and sports facilities
• estate agents and letting agents
• betting shops and bingo halls
• car showrooms
• hotels and guest houses

Due to the Easter Bank Holiday, the funds for the business grants will be transmitted from Tuesday, April 14, and will take up to three working days to clear in bank accounts.

Deputy Mayor of Liverpool, Cllr Gary Millar, said: “We fully appreciate this is a very difficult time for businesses and we have a dedicated team working as hard as they can, including over the Easter Bank Holiday weekend, to process applications for grants.

“Over the last week, we have processed more than 1,700 applications worth around £17m and are now able to deal with at least 400 applications per day.

“We have also proactively contacted all businesses we have details who are eligible, to let them know.

“It is really important that businesses check on our website to make sure they are eligible for the grants, and provide all of the information that the Government have asked for, as that will speed up the processing of their application.”

Meanwhile, Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram has today (April 15) announced that £400,000 of funding is being made available to provide immediate support to the city region’s vital music, film and TV industries as part of wider package of support that will be announced this week.

Two key funds have been created to provide urgent support for creative businesses, many of which are at risk of falling through the net of the core central government funds that became available last week.

The Music Fund will provide up to £10,000 of grant or loan funding to support micro-businesses and SMEs in the sector through this period and help futureproof them for the longer-term.

The Film and TV Development Fund will provide investments of up to £25,000 per project to support the development of ambitious and distinctive content across all feature film and TV genres, and for all platforms.

The funds will provide much-needed immediate financial support to businesses during the current coronavirus crisis and aim to ensure that high quality content ideas are in place to boost the post-COVID-19 recovery of the wider city regional creative sector.

The announcement is the first part of a number of targeted initiatives to directly support the survival of SMEs, creative and tech firms and help them access central government funds that will be announced by the Metro Mayor this week.

Steve Rotheram said: “It is absolutely vital that we do everything we can to protect and preserve our music, film and TV industries.

Steve Rotheram

“They are at the beating heart of our city region’s very identity and are responsible for 5,000 jobs, contributing £228m to our economy every year in normal times.

“We have not received extra money direct from government to support them, but my team at the Combined Authority has worked incredibly hard with our partners to identify funds that were ear-marked for projects later in the year and brought them forward to make them available right now, when they are so urgently needed by the sector.

“Our aim is to support our businesses in this key sector to weather this storm, and to develop some of the brilliant ideas that we will need to shine a spotlight on the city region and get this vital sector back to full health, as we recover from the coronavirus crisis.”

Michael Eakin, chair of the LCR Music Board, who will oversee the Music Fund, said: “This is a very welcome injection of investment into a sector which, like so many others, is really struggling.

“Small amounts of investment will ensure the survival of some of the crucial businesses and individuals who help make up the amazing ecology of our music sector, and will put us in a good place to bounce back strongly once this challenging moment is over.”

Lynn Saunders, head of the Liverpool Film Office, which will oversee the Film and TV Development Fund alongside its existing Production Fund, said: “Film and TV projects delivered over £17m of investment into the Liverpool City Region last year.

“With filming now shut down across the UK, it’s vital that we provide targeted, fast-tracked development support to the producers, writers and other creative talent whose ideas and scripts will be the bedrock for the recovery of our regional production sector later in the year.”

Both funds will open for applications on April 15, when detailed guidance will also be published.