A Roadmap to COVID-19 Financial Relief

We are following all the guidance and advice issued and are maintaining our services with business as usual (which is continually under review as we monitor the situation).

Given this will be a time of need for many businesses and individuals, we are committed to the preservation of businesses/employment and keen to continue this support.

As expected, we are seeing a number of sectors being massively impacted already if you are one of them do not hesitate to get in touch. COVID-19 Summaries

COVID-19 – Emergency Economic Measures as of 18 March 2020

Key points: –

• £350bn of Loan Guarantees
• Business Rates Holidays
• Business Grants
• Time to Pay Schemes
• SSP Relief
• Business Interruption Insurance
• Mortgage Payment Holiday

Loan Guarantees (The COVID-19 Business Interruption Loan Scheme) (‘CBILS’)

Much of the detail remains unclear,  the government is proposing to guarantee up to £350bn of loans made to UK companies, via the British Business Bank.

Companies big and small across the UK are under pressure, with cash-flow being a particular concern as a result of reductions in turnover.

CBILS

Nevertheless, CBILS is not a grant.  It is a loan, and companies will have increased debt as they (hopefully) emerge the other side.

The government has confirmed that they will limit the guarantee to 80% of the value of the loan, and there will be no charge to either businesses or banks for providing the guarantee.

The government has advised that CBILS will offer favorable interest rates, with the government covering the first six months of interest on the loan.

Business Rates Holidays

They have scrapped business rates on all commercial properties in the retail, leisure, and hospitality sectors.

The Chancellor explicitly stated that this would extend to all shops, pubs, theatres, music venues and restaurants. From this, we can infer that cinemas, clubs, leisure centers, hotels, and entertainment venues will also receive exemptions.

Business Grants

The Chancellor announced that retail, leisure, hospitality businesses will receive grants of £25k, having value between £15k and £51k.

The ‘smallest’ businesses in the country, across all sectors, will also be able to seek grants of £10k.

• Small business rate relief applies to companies with a property with a rateables value of less than £15k. The rates ordinarily payable on these properties are reduced, with properties having a rateable value of £12k or less paying nil rates, and tapered rates applying between £12k and £15k.
•  Rural rate relief applies in rural communities with a population below 3,000, and your business is either the only shop or post office (with a rateable value of up to £8.5k) or the only petrol station or pub (with a rateable value of up to £12.5k).  In these cases, no business rates are payable.

We should also expect that these grants will be subject to conditions, as otherwise, they will be open to abuse.

Time to Pay Schemes

There has been no official extension to TTP schemes, or any obvious relaxation of the criteria applied by HMRC.

SSP Relief

The legislation is to be brought forward to allow employers to recover COVID-19 related SSP from the government.

This will be limited to employers with fewer than 250 employees (as at 28 February 2020) and will cover up to two weeks’ SSP.

This will only apply once the new regulations are in force.

Mortgage Payment Holiday

The government has announced that there will be a 3 months’ holiday for residential and BTL properties.

Please don’t hesitate to contact us.