Guidance

Check if you're eligible for the coronavirus Small Business Grant Fund

The Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF) supports small and rural businesses in England with their business costs during coronavirus.

• From: Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy
• Published: 1 April 2020

This guidance was withdrawn on 5 October 2020

The Small Business Grant Fund is now closed.

You should have received your grant by 30 September 2020. Contact your local council if you think you’re eligible for a grant but have not yet received it.

Applies to England

• Guidance for Northern Ireland
• Guidance for Scotland
• Guidance for Wales

Small businesses in England which pay little or no business rates are entitled to a one-off cash grant of £10,000 from their local council.

Eligibility

You’re eligible if your business:

• is based in England
• occupies property
• was eligible for small business rate relief (including tapered relief) or rural rate relief on 11 March 2020

Changes made to a business’s rateable value or rating assessment after 11 March 2020 will not affect eligibility.

Properties excluded from the fund

You cannot get funding for:

• properties occupied for personal uses, such as private stables, beach huts and moorings
• car parks and parking spaces

If you use more than one property

Eligible businesses can get one grant per property.

You cannot claim both the small business grant and the retail, hospitality and leisure grant on the same property.

If you already get state aid

The small business grant counts towards the total de minimis state aid you’re allowed to get over a 3 year period.

Your local council will ask you to complete a de minimis declaration confirming that you will not exceed the de minimis state aid threshold of €200,000.

If you exceed the de minimis threshold you may still be eligible for funding under the COVID-19 Temporary Framework.

Your local council will ask you to complete a declaration confirming that:

• you will not exceed the state aid temporary framework threshold of €800,000
• you were not an ‘undertaking in difficulty’ on 31 December 2019

How to claim

The Small Business Grant Fund is now closed.

What happens next

The grant will be paid to the person registered as the ratepayer for the property as of 11 March 2020.

You do not have to pay the grant back but it will be taxable. Only businesses which make an overall profit once grant income is included will be subject to tax.

1 May 2020
Updated with information on tax.

3 April 2020
Updated with information about state aid.

1 April 2020
First published.

Find out how other businesses have used the Small Business Grant Fund.

Published 1 April 2020