Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, what assessment his Department has made of the effect of distributing the November 2020 local authority discretionary grant on the basis of per head of population (a) in urban centres where the ratio of businesses to residents is significantly higher than other areas and (b) more widely.

The Additional Restrictions Grant is allocated at £20 per head of residential population in line with wider support to areas, subject to Local Covid Alert Level ‘Very High’ restrictions, including Contain Outbreak Management Funds.

Overall, there is a strong positive correlation between business count and population. As a result, we see a fairly equal distribution of Additional Restrictions Grant value per business under the proposed allocation method.

The Additional Restrictions Grant is one of several grant funds being made available to local authorities to support businesses that are either being asked to close or have had their trade affected as restrictions are put in place to tackle Covid-19 and save lives. All businesses required to close will receive grants of up to £3,000 per four-week period.