Media Release - Small business grants and waived rents for States' commercial tenants return on Monday

Small business grants and waived rents for States' commercial tenants return on Monday

Small Business Grants will again be introduced from Monday 15th February to support small firms financially impacted by the current lockdown. The Grants are single payments of either £1,000 or £2,000.

The Grants were one of the support measures used to help businesses during the first lockdown in 2020, and as the current lockdown continues, the Policy & Resources Committee has agreed it should introduce a similar measure again now.

The eligible sectors will mirror those who can access the existing payroll co-funding scheme. To be eligible businesses will also need to employ 20 or fewer staff and must be unable to trade or be generating less than 70% of their normal turnover.

The Grant is available to self-employed traders if their business is run full-time and is their main source of income. Full details on eligibility are available at https://covid19.gov.gg/guidance/business/grant.

The Policy & Resources Committee is also aware that there has been public interest around its plans to again waive the rents for commercial tenants of States' properties and the mooring fees for commercial fishermen, for the period during which they are unable to trade. The Committee has agreed this afternoon to introduce these measures. In waiving rents for commercial tenants, the Committee hopes that this will also encourage private landlords to consider how they can also support their business tenants while the lockdown is in place.

Deputy Mark Helyar, Treasury lead for the Policy & Resources Committee said:
"We know that as the lockdown continues the pressure of businesses grows, particularly for small businesses, so we're reintroducing measures which helped them through the first lockdown. We remain hopeful that this will be a shorter lockdown and businesses will be able to resume trading, in stages, sooner rather than later. But clearly there is uncertainty and people are worried, and we want businesses to know we're behind them and we'll do what we can to help viable businesses get through this period so they are in a position to bounce back when the lockdown ends."