Posted by jonathanfullarton - December 21, 2021 3:00 pm
Coronavirus COVID-19 Hub page
Government support
During the Covid-19 pandemic many schemes were introduced by the government to help businesses and individuals. Some of these measures such as the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS), the Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) and such grants such as the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) have now closed.
However, there is still some support available from the government as individuals and businesses endeavour to get back to normal.
The Recovery Loan Scheme
The Recovery Loan Scheme is open to all UK businesses, no matter there size, to help support the necessary access to finance for business owners to recover from the disruption caused by the pandemic.
Changes from 1 January 2022
During the Autumn Budget 2021, Chancellor Rishi Sunak extended the period of the Recovery Loan Scheme until 30 June 2022.
However, from 1 January 2022, the following changes came into force:
- The scheme is only open to small and medium sized enterprises
- The maximum amount of finance available will be £2 million per business
- The guarantee coverage that the government will provide to lenders will be reduced to 70%
Please note that these changes will apply to all offers made from 1 January 2022.
Accredited lenders
For details of accredited lenders for The Recovery Loan Scheme please visit the British Business Bank’s website here.
Is your business eligible?
You will be eligible to apply for a loan under this scheme if your business is trading in the UK. During your application process you will need to demonstrate the following:
- your business would be viable, if not for the pandemic,
- that your business has been adversely impacted by the pandemic,
- that your business is not in collective insolvency proceedings (unless your business is in scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol. If it does, then different rules do apply. Please read more here.
If you received any previous COVID-19 guaranteed loan schemes such as the Business Bounce Back Loan (BBLS), the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) or the
the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) you are still eligible to access finance under this scheme, providing your business meets all the eligibility criteria.
Ineligible businesses
Businesses from the following sectors are not eligible for the Business Recovery Loan Scheme
- banks, building societies, insurers and re-insurers (except for insurance brokers)
- public-sector bodies
- state-funded primary and secondary schools
No personal guarantees will be taken on facilities up to £250,000. A borrower’s principal private residence cannot be taken as security.
Loan duration
The maximum length of the loan will depend on the type of finance. This will be up to 3 years for overdrafts and invoice finance facilities and up to up to 6 years for loans and asset finance facilities.
The Culture Recovery Fund (CRF)
The Culture Recovery Fund is a £1.57 billion government fund which is managed by The Arts Council. It is designed to help support cultural organisations to survive and recover from the impact of Covid. For more details on the Culture Recovery Fund and how to apply click here.
Contacting us
Due to the Coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic and following advice from the government most of our staff continue to work remotely from home. Following more recent guidelines some of our offices are opening up for clients who need to drop off books and papers but there are strict arrangements per office to ensure we keep clients and our colleagues as safe as possible during this time and so that we can maintain social distancing. To find out more details about opening times for a particular MFW office please click here.
Rest assured that we are working hard to deliver you the same high service we normally do through these challenging times. As part of this we have carried out a risk assessment at each of our offices to ensure we safeguard clients, visitors and colleagues during this time. You can view this below:
COVID-19 Spamming & Phishing
Please be very mindful that in this stressing times there remain unscrupulous people who think nothing of trying to steal money from others due to phishing, spamming and other bogus activities.
