Financial Support for Businesses

As you know the Scottish government announced a package of support measures for business last week - no retailers will pay business rates for 2020/21. We are still awaiting further details on the 2 grant schemes (£10,000/£25,000) which were also announced. We will provide you with an update as soon as we have it.

Against the advice of SGF and other trade bodies, the government has allowed the 32 Local Authorities to decide on which jobs get the ‘key worker’ designation. Again we will provide clarity on this as soon as we have it.

The UK government has issued updated guidance for businesses. Within the main guidance the specific topics relevant to retailers in Scotland are:

1. Support for businesses through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme 

2. Support for businesses through deferring VAT and Income Tax payments

3. Support for businesses who are paying sick pay to employees

4. Support for businesses through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme

5. Support for businesses paying tax: Time to Pay service

6. Insurance

 The full guidance can be accessed here. We will issue more detailed guidance for members on topics such as the Job Retention scheme as soon as we can. In the meantime please just let us know if you have any questions.