What government support is still available to businesses post-pandemic?

By Alexia Savar, Corporate Recoveries and Insolvency Solicitor

Back when Covid-19 first struck we saw a quick and appropriate response from the government, introducing schemes which protected hundreds of thousands of businesses from bankruptcy and saving more than one million jobs.

As the world moves on and Covid-19 becomes less and less a ‘thing’, we’ve seen support from the government significantly diminish. We’ve seen the abolition of the Job Retention Scheme, as well as the Bounce Back Loan Scheme and The Coronavirus Business Interruption Scheme.

That being said, there is still support available for businesses post Covid-19. Here’s a list of the government support still available:

Covid additional relief fund (CARF)

The Covid additional relief fund, put in place by local governments, originally gave additional funding to small to medium sized business most affected by the pandemic and multiple lockdowns – focusing on the retail, hospitality, leisure and nursery sectors.

However, this additional funding is now solely available to those businesses that can prove they were adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic and were unable to receive previous rounds of grant funding.

The full criteria that must be met in order to receive the CARF include:

• The business must be able to demonstrate that it was severely affected by Covid-19 and suffered a trading loss of at least 25%.
• The business has employees who worked at the business premises (or would have if it were it not for the Covid-19 restrictions imposed).
• The business must have been in occupation of their premises and trading during the pandemic.
• The business was liable to pay business rates during this period.
• The business has a rateable value (i.e. the estimated annual rental value of its’ commercial property) of up to £51,000.

For more information, we recommend you to visit your local authorities’ website and check out the eligibility criteria: https://www.gov.uk/contact-your-local-council-about-business-rates

Please be aware that we are unsure of the official expiration date to obtain this additional funding.

Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Bill 2022

The Commercial Rent (Coronavirus) Bill is legislation that was introduced for commercial landlords and tenants. The legislation concerns any unresolved dispute arising from outstanding commercial rent arrears, which occurred during the protected rent period of 21^st March 2020 to the 18^th July 2021.

The law states that commercial landlords are unable to issue proceedings, including court proceedings and forfeiture for protected rent debts (including rent, service charges, insurance rent, interest and any VAT) as this would be wrongful and unlawful.

This new law has given significant support to businesses that had difficulty paying their rent during the protected rent period.

You can find further information on the commercial rent code of practice here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/commercial-rent-code-of-practice

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If you’re a business struggling with debt or facing financial difficulty, please do not hesitate to contact our Corporate Recoveries & Insolvency Department. Get in touch with Alexia today: alexia.savar@primaslaw.co.uk.