Nick Marshall, director and business adviser at Beatons accountancy firm, looks at how businesses in tourism and leisure can weather the storm.
There are quite a few bailouts available to retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, most of which have been told to close by the Government, including business rates holidays.
Hotels, as well as shops, restaurants, cafes, pubs, cinemas and theatres will no longer have to pay any business rates in the upcoming tax year.
In addition, if your business has a rateable value of under £51,000, you may also be entitled to a cash grant of up to £25,000.
And better yet, you don’t need to do anything to apply. The new business rates bill will be recalculated by your local council and sent out to you, and they should contact you if you are entitled to a grant.
Another area you should explore is the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. This allows you to furlough your staff.
Furloughed staff receive 80% of their wage (up to £2,500 a month) from the government and, when the crisis is over, these staff have been retained by your business so can return to work.
It’s in the interest of our government to protect the wider economy which is made up of lots of businesses – small and big – based in a wide range of sectors.
To do this, they need to offer these firms a lifeline – and the hope is that by doing so, businesses like yours won’t just be viable in a year’s time, they will have been supported properly to pick up where they left off.
These are just some of the measures introduced to help in these challenging times.