Local authorities have now begun taking applications for the discretionary grants. Each local authority has been awarded a different amount to pass on to relevant businesses.

Our local authority, Woking Borough Council, has provided the following guidance:

Grants of up to £25,000 per business

Payments of £25,000 may be made where we judge that businesses would have received a payment of £25,000 had they been eligible under the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure scheme.

For example, the fixed costs are proportionate to a business with a property rateable value of over £15,000 and below £51,000.

Grants of up to £10,000 per business

Payments of £10,000 may be made where we judge that businesses would have received a payment of £10,000 had they been eligible under the Small Business Grant Fund or the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Scheme.

For example, the fixed costs are proportionate to a business with a property rateable value up to £15,000.

Other deciding factors

The level of grant awarded may be reduced if applications to the scheme are greater than resources available, and it is considered necessary to enable support to priority businesses. Grants will be based on the fixed property costs incurred by eligible businesses.

Woking Council also have the discretion to make payments of any amount under £10,000. There may be circumstances, such as providing support for micro-businesses with fixed costs, where smaller grants are awarded.

Furlough Scheme Deadline

Further detail has been provided on the changes to the furlough scheme:

From 1 July, employers can bring back to work employees that have previously been furloughed for any amount of time and any shift pattern, while still being able to claim the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme grant for their normal hours not worked. When claiming the grant for furloughed hours employers will need to report and claim for a minimum period of a week.

The scheme will close to new entrants from 30 June. From this point onwards, employers will only be able to furlough employees that they have furloughed for a full 3 week period prior to 30 June.

This means that the final date by which an employer needs to agree with their employee and ensure they place them on furlough is 10 June. Employers will have until 31 July to make any claims in respect of the period to 30 June.

Further guidance on flexible furloughing and how employers should calculate claims will be published on 12 June.

VAT Reverse Charge Implementation Delayed

The introduction of the domestic reverse charge for construction services will be delayed for a period of 5 months,  until 1 March 2021 due to the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.