9th September 2020

Dear Member

COVID-19 UPDATE

England – The Prime Minister has just announced some further changes to the management of customers that will be relevant to your business.

 

• There will be a legal requirement for hospitality businesses to ask for customer details for the purposes of Track and Trace.  The definition of a hospitality business has not yet been provided and may or may not include amusement arcades.  It certainly includes pubs.  This comes into effect from 18^th September.
• A new ‘Rule of Six’ is being promulgated. This means that whilst you can have more than six people on your premises, no one group within the venue can comprise more than six people.  Again we await more precise details.  This comes into effect from Monday 14^th September.

Alongside these changes the PM said local authorities in England will be given extra resources to ensure enforcement of the Covid restrictions.

Local ‘curfews’ will be introduced in some badly affected areas for some businesses.  This is the case for hospitality businesses in Bolton, who can also only serve takeaways.

 

Safer Gambling Week

Further to my note last week about Safer Gambling Week please find a link to the resources page which now includes a whole range of digital assets you may wish to use.

https://safergamblinguk.org/login?referrer=https://safergamblinguk.org/rgw/resources

 

Grants – Local Lockdown

The Treasury have announced new grants for businesses affected by the local lockdowns.

Local authorities will be issuing grants worth up to £1,500 every three weeks. To be eligible for the grant, you must have been required to close due to local Covid-19 restrictions.

Key points:

• If a business occupies a premises with a rateable value less than £51,000 or occupy a property or part of a property subject to an annual rent or mortgage payment of less than £51,000, it will receive £1,000.
• If a business has a rateable value more than £51,000 or part of a property subject to an annual rent or mortgage payment of more than £51,000 it will receive £1,500.
• This targeted support is in addition to businesses eligibility for the Government’s existing schemes such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, loans, grants etc.
• Local authorities will be responsible for distributing the grants to businesses in circumstances where they are closed due to local interventions.
• Further eligibility criteria may be determined by local authorities.

 

As with other Covid-19 business grants, local grants to closed businesses will be treated as taxable income.

Kind regards,

John