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<p>The Government is aware that some small businesses and organisations have found
themselves excluded from the existing business grants schemes because of the way they
interact with the business rates system. That is why the Government has allocated
up to an additional £617 million to Local Authorities to enable them to give discretionary
grants to organisations in this situation. The Government’s intention is for Local
Authorities to prioritise the following types of organisation when making discretionary
grants:</p><p> </p><ul><li>Small businesses in shared offices or other flexible workspaces
for example, industrial parks, science parks, incubators etc, which do not have their
own business rates assessment;</li><li>Regular market traders who do not have their
own business rates assessment;</li><li>B&Bs which pay Council Tax instead of business
rates; and</li><li>Charity properties in receipt of charitable business rates relief
which would otherwise have been eligible for Small Business Rates Relief or Rural
Rate Relief<p> </p></li></ul><p>Local Authorities may choose to focus payments on
those priority groups which are most relevant to their local areas. Local Authorities
may also choose to pay grants to organisations outside of these priority groups, according
to local economic need, so long as the organisation was trading on 11<sup>th</sup>
March, and has not received any other cash grant funded by central Government (with
the exception of grants from the SEISS).</p><p> </p><p>In addition, the Government
has announced a £750m support package for charities. £360m of this will be allocated
directly to charities providing essential services and supporting vulnerable people,
including up to £200m for hospices across the next quarter. A further £310m will support
smaller, local charities, including through grants distributed by the National Lottery
Community Fund. £60m will be allocated to the Devolved Administrations through the
Barnett formula. The Government pledged to match whatever the public donated to the
BBC Big Night In fundraiser on 23 April, with a minimum of £20m going to the National
Emergencies Trust.</p><p> </p>
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