Originally written by Anna Jordan on Small Business
A number of business owners haven’t yet received their Restart Grant, despite being launched at the beginning of April.
The Business Independent Retailers Association (BIRA) said that many of their members in England still haven’t received a Restart Grant owed by their local authority. One member said that their local authority website promised the grant by ‘the end of April 2021’ which has since been changed to ‘the end of May 2021’.
The one-off grants, which were announced in the Budget in March, were made available to help ‘non-essential’ businesses reopen after lockdown ended.
Andrew Goodacre, Bira CEO, said: “We are disappointed to hear from members that there are ongoing delays with the distribution of the Restart Grants.
“In our view these should have been with business owners before the shops opened and now we are in May and still too many independent retailers are waiting.
“All the data is with the local authorities as this is not the first time grants have been sent to businesses and we urge all local authorities to re-double their efforts. Shops may be open, but the owners still need all the support that is owed to them.”
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