One week on, some councils yet to open Omicron grant applications for hospitality

Disparities are emerging across the country as while some councils have already paid hospitality businesses Omicron grants to cover Christmas losses, others have not even opened their application portals yet.

The one-off grants of up to £6,000 per premises were announced on 21 December and cash was distributed to local authorities in England on 7 January.

Amanda Lillitou, owner of the Jolly Cricketers pub in Beaconsfield, said she applied for the grant on 4 January and received an invoice seven days later from Buckinghamshire Council confirming payment.

"The council have been very good all through the pandemic," she told The Caterer, adding councillor Martin Tett had personally chased any delays.

However, she added: "This latest grant is welcome but does not compensate fully for loss of profit from the festive period due to cancellations of party bookings. Not raising the VAT in the spring would be the most valued help hospitality could be given."

Meanwhile, some councils have not even opened their application portals. "There's no excuse, this isn't an acceptable period of time," said James Allcock, owner of the Pig & Whistle in Beverley.

"The government makes it sound to the public like that money's in your bank tomorrow, and that just isn't the case. They might be operating on short staff – the world is short-staffed – but to not even have a way to apply open is beyond me."

He said his business lost the same amount of money as the grant he is due to receive on one day alone, on the Friday before Christmas.

"I'd rather an insult paid quickly to help cash flow than it come later and later into the new year when it's too late," he said.

He added: "We were full this Saturday and have basically lost between a half and a third of our bookings due to Covid. We will pick some up and probably will end up full again, but it's no way to run a business. The anxiety and inability to plan and order without sleepless nights is crippling.

"There's times where you do the orders five minutes before you go to bed because you're waiting for an announcement that doesn't come. You can't run a business like that and it affects the whole supply chain."

He said keeping the reduced rate of VAT, which is due to return to 20% from April, would be "a big help" and urged the government to be "clearer and calmer" in its messaging.

A spokesperson for East Riding of Yorkshire Council said: "The council understands the importance of paying businesses promptly to support them during this difficult period and is working through government guidance. We anticipate the application process for the Omicron Hospitality and Leisure Grant scheme to be open before 18 January 2022. We ask businesses to check our web pages for updates.

"The government require councils to gather evidence to support applications and carry out pre-payment checks. It is expected that it may take up to three weeks to award a grant."

Northumberland County Council is due to open its application process on Monday with funding to be distributed "as soon as possible".

Helen Cradock, owner of the Feathers Inn in Hedley on the Hill, Northumberland, said the funding was needed urgently as bills were coming in.

"It's almost pointless if they leave it until February because then it's too late for a lot of people," said Cradock.

She said the £4,000 she expects to be eligible for would "go some way" to paying her bills, but with trade even quieter than usual this month, the business cannot afford the supplier cost increases and she expects to have to put prices up. "We are going to have to work extremely hard to get the business through this winter," she said.

Joanna Horsell, owner of Horsell Kitchen café in Surrey, was told applications would go live online "in the next few weeks".

A spokesman for Woking Borough Council said: "The Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) issued updated guidance and clarification to local authorities late afternoon on Wednesday 12 January. We are in the process of analysing this guidance in order to go live with an application form shortly.

"Once the application process is open, payments will be made to those applicants meeting the scheme criteria and the BEIS' pre-payment anti-fraud checks which is now a requirement of grant schemes.

"Normally once an application has passed all the above checks, payment will be issued within two weeks.

"The BEIS scheme guidance requires all payments to have been issued by 31 March 2022 and no further decisions on applications can be made after 28 February 2022."

Simon Bull of the Four-Ale Taproom said Gosport Borough Council "normally pays pretty quickly" and said that funds left over from previous grants were also being distributed.

However, given the business has been trading about 40% down from 2019, he said the £2,700 the business is anticipated to receive will "go nowhere".

"The Saturday before Christmas we had two people in the bar from 8.30pm to close. The same day in 2019 we had over 50. People are still staying away, they won't stand, and if all the tables are sat at, they won't come in. People used to share tables but not anymore," he said.

Estelle Rowe is a director of Reasons To Be Cheerful café in Manchester and deputy chief executive of Your Trust Rochdale, a charity which runs venues including a leisure centre with a café and bar, a civic centre that is being used as a testing centre and a museum and gallery which has a café.

Applications have opened for both Manchester City Council and Rochdale Borough Council, and Rowe said the process had been fairly simple and straightforward, however the money was not enough to cover what was a "severely depleted" Christmas. She said takings were on a par with Christmas 2020 when Reasons to be Cheerful was shut but able to operate takeaway and delivery.

Rowe said: "It will replace some of the profit that we lost, but the real issue that we've got is the next couple of months really, because I doubt the government wants to pay out any more money at all, doesn't want to bring in furlough, and January and February are the hardest months. For many businesses it's going to be very difficult – there'll be quarterly rent due, VAT bills, rise in energy bills. It's just awful.

"A depleted Christmas followed by what's probably going to be a quieter January and February period, coupled with the squeeze on our expenditure, the inflation factors that we're seeing along various lines – utilities and supplies – it's like a triple whammy."

She said she hoped for an extension of the reduced VAT to wet-led pubs and targeted grants for as long as the sector is reporting depleted business.

UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said: "We appreciate that there have only been seven working days of the New Year so far, and that local authorities will have certain processes to follow before they're able to deliver the money, but we'd urge councils to do all they can to have it paid out by the end of January.

"Without a financial lifeline, some smaller businesses will be forced to close, triggering job losses and stifling the wider economic recovery. These vital grants cannot be paid into struggling hospitality businesses' bank accounts soon enough."

Applications for funding for Welsh businesses are not expected to open until 17 January. The Northern Ireland Executive announced one-off grants for venues of up to £20,000 depending on their rateable value, which are understood to have been delayed and are expected to be distributed "in the next couple of weeks", according to Hospitality Ulster.

The one-off December and January Business Support Top Up grant in Scotland closes for applications on 31 January, with local authorities making contact between now and the end of January for businesses already on their records having received previous funding. Deputy first minister John Swinney told the BBC earlier this week that funds are expected to be paid out "within the next two weeks".

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