Rutland County Council is offering help to local businesses that are experiencing disruption to their trade with other businesses customers because of COVID-19.

Many commercial operations are continuing to struggle as a result of COVID restrictions because business customers are yet to resume trading or may not be trading at full capacity – causing significant disruption to supply chains.

Businesses in the hospitality, accommodation, leisure, non-essential retail, sports and gym and personal care sectors can all apply for this support scheme.

Rutland County Council is committing the remaining balance of its existing Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) allocation of £202,000 to provide grants to businesses that are not covered by the national Restart Grants scheme because their business premises are not rated.

These ARG Grants are also available to business-rated Tier 1 supply chain businesses that provide products, services and equipment to the hospitality, accommodation and leisure sectors but fall outside the scope of the national scheme.

Councillor Oliver Hemsley, Leader of Rutland County Council and Cabinet Member for Economic Development, said: "Businesses are starting to get back on their feet after the latest national lockdown but the rate at which different businesses are able to recover can create its own problems.

"For example, if a pub wasn't able to reopen in the past month because it can't offer outside table service, this may have a knock-on effect on a small brewery that would otherwise be supplying them. The refocusing of our ARG scheme is intended to keep businesses going if they are experiencing problems with their supply chain and business-to-business sales."

An online application form and policy guide explaining more about the support on offer can be found on the Council's website at rutland.force.com/customer/s/argrestart

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Businesses that have previously received ARG grants in these sectors will need to reapply.

The amount available to each qualifying business will depend on a number of factors, including the number of qualifying applications, staff headcount, whether a business is applying for a grant for the first time, and the sector the business operates in.

The application window is now open until Tuesday 18 May 2021. After the closing date, applications will be assessed and grants awarded.