Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak has announced £4.6bn financial support package for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses.

It follows the Prime Minister’s announcement on January 4, 2021, that these businesses must close until at least February.

One-off top up grants, worth up to £9,000 per property, are available to help businesses through to the Spring.

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The cash is provided on a per-property basis to support businesses through the latest restrictions, and is expected to benefit over 600,000 business properties, worth £4 billion in total across all nations of the UK.

One-off grants will be presented to closed businesses with £4,000 for businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or under, £6,000 for businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000 and £9,000 for businesses with a rateable value of over £51,000.

The new one-off grants come in addition to existing business support, including grants worth up to £3,000 for closed businesses, and up to £2,100 per month for impacted businesses once they reopen.

The government has also provided 100% business rates relief for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses, £1.1 billion existing discretionary funding for Local Authorities, extended the furlough scheme to April and 100% government backed loans, has been extended until March.

Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “The new strain of the virus presents us all with a huge challenge – and whilst the vaccine is being rolled out, we have needed to tighten restrictions further.

Throughout the pandemic we’ve taken swift action to protect lives and livelihoods and today we’re announcing a further cash injection to support businesses and jobs until the Spring.

This will help businesses to get through the months ahead – and crucially it will help sustain jobs, so workers can be ready to return when they are able to reopen.”

A further £594 million is also being made available for Local Authorities and the Devolved Administrations to support other businesses not eligible for the grants, that might be affected by the restrictions. Businesses should apply to their Local Authorities.

The Scottish Government will receive £375 million, the Welsh Government will receive £227 million and the Northern Ireland Executive will receive £127 million.

This will contribute to the funding from the UK Government, to continue to provide the devolved administrations the certainty they need to plan for their COVID-19 response in the months ahead

Small businesses in the devolved administrations should also be able to benefit from other UK-wide measures in the government’s unprecedented package of support for business, including the various business lending schemes, and the extension of the Self Employment Income Support Scheme.