Coronavirus: 4,000 firms still awaiting £25,000 grant – 15 days after chancellor’s pledge

The leaders of both Retail NI and the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium have stressed the urgency of ensuring that firms have all the support pledged by the chancellor as soon as possible.

Although a scheme offering £10,000 grants to small businesses began paying out at the start of this week, a very similar scheme for larger businesses – offering grants of £25,000 – is still not operational in Northern Ireland.

Around 4,000 firms would be eligible for that grant.

Both schemes were announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak on Tuesday, March 17.

The Northern Ireland Executive then soon afterwards offered further details of the grant schemes, saying they were to be “immediate”.

The first scheme, called the Small Business Support Grant Scheme, offered £10,000 of free money to about 27,000 firms in Northern Ireland with rateable values below £15,000.

The second is for hospitality, tourism and retail firms with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000.

The government was still saying today: “Further details about how to access this grant will be announced as soon as this is possible.”

Glyn Roberts, chief executive of Retail NI (representing around 1,800 firms), said many businesses were in a “cash flow crisis”.

He said he was in contact with the Department of the Economy, and “I understand it may well be live hopefully next week”.

But he also said: “There’s no time like the present. We need to urgently get all of these [grants] out.”

He also stressed that, besides the grant scheme, members really want to see is an extension of the “rates holiday” for NI firms, from three months to a full year.

Aodhán Connolly, director of the Northern Ireland Retail Consortium (representing around 100 firms), said: “There are many sectors within the retail industry that are suffering because they have had to close or footfall has been decimated.

“This is compounded by the fact that many retailers fall between the cracks and can’t avail of the financial assistance coming from the Executive.

“From those that are able to receive the £10,000 grant, we are grateful that this has been delivered quickly and payments have already started to be received. However, for those medium sized businesses, there is still no clarity on when they receive their grant aid.”

Grant details will be available, when ready, here:

www.nibusinessinfo.co.uk/content/coronavirus-business-support-grant-schemes