B&BS BARRED FROM FUND FACE CLOSURE

THE Government has been warned that many B&Bs will not survive after being told they would not be able to apply for its £617 million ‘top-up’ fund after all.

As reported in The Mail on Sunday a fortnight ago, B&B owners who pay council tax rather than business rates are ineligible for business support grants, but had been told they could apply for help via the Government’s Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund.

But now the Department for Business has said B&B owners who are eligible for the Self-Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) would not be able to claim from the top-up fund at all, even though the difference could be huge.

SEISS is capped at £7,500 for three months and many B&B owners will qualify for much less, whereas the business grants are for £10,000.

David Weston, chairman of the B&B Association, said: ‘These B&Bs haven’t yet had a penny of help, though they’ve been closed by Government order since March 23. We appeal to every local authority to use their discretion to prioritise council tax-paying B&Bs, who urgently need the grant money to survive.’