Extend grants immediately to small businesses outside of SBRR
The Parliament petitions site records 26,105 signatures for this petition, which closed on 8 October 2020. The Government responded on 29 May 2020. MPs debated it in Westminster Hall on 25 June 2020.
The petition
The petition's creator is not named in the Petitions site's published record. Quoted in full from the UK Parliament petitions site.
Extend grants immediately to small businesses outside of SBRR
The cash grants proposed by Government are only for businesses in receipt of the Small Business Rates Relief or Rural Relief, or for particular sectors. Many small businesses fall outside these reliefs desperately need cash grants and support now.
This needs to be made immediately available by every means possible.
Small businesses are dying by the day and jobs are being lost. We need fast, easy access to cash grants for small businesses enabling them to survive COVID-19.
Time is of the essence. Government needs to do more for small businesses, not just the current proposals.
Grant distribution can be done faster. We need to use all resources available.
The Government's response
The Government published its response on 29 May 2020; the petitions site lists the HM Treasury as responsible. Its summary:
The business grants schemes are helping many thousands of small businesses and are just one part of the Government’s unprecedented package of support for business during the Covid-19 crisis.
The opening 356 words of the 584-word response:
The Government recognises that this is a very challenging time for businesses in a wide variety of sectors. Small businesses facing high fixed property-related costs are in particular need of support because they are less likely than larger businesses to have sufficient cash reserves to see them through the Covid-19 crisis. The Small Business Grants Fund and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund are designed to help the smallest businesses, as well as small businesses in sectors which have been especially hard hit by the decline in customer footfall which has taken place since social distancing measures were introduced. The grants schemes are already helping thousands of small businesses in these situations: as of 11th May, over £9.1 billion worth of grants have been paid to over 742,000 business premises.
The Government is aware that some small businesses have found themselves excluded from the existing business grants schemes because of the way they interact with the business rates system. That is why the Government has allocated up to an additional £617 million to Local Authorities to enable them to give discretionary grants to businesses in this situation. The Government has published detailed guidance on how Local Authorities should administer the Discretionary Grants Fund. The Government’s intention is for Local Authorities to prioritise the following types of business when making discretionary grants: small businesses in shared offices or other flexible work spaces such as industrial parks, science parks, incubators etc, which do not have their own business rates assessment; regular market traders who do not have their own business rates assessment; B&Bs which pay Council Tax instead of business rates; and charity properties in receipt of charitable business rates relief which would otherwise have been eligible for Small Business Rates Relief or Rural Rate Relief.
Local Authorities may choose to focus payments on those priority groups which are most relevant to their local areas. Local Authorities may also choose to pay grants to businesses outside of these priority groups, according to local economic need, so long as the business was trading on 11th March, and has not received any other cash grant funded by central Government.
Read the full response on the petitions site.
Where the signatures came from
Signatures came from 650 constituencies on the boundaries used until the 2024 general election. The largest number, 270, came from Carshalton and Wallington.
26,005 of the signatures were from the UK and 100 from elsewhere, by the location signers gave.
| Constituency | Signatures |
|---|---|
| Carshalton and Wallington | 270 |
| Truro and Falmouth | 190 |
| St Ives | 171 |
| Sutton and Cheam | 147 |
| Stevenage | 137 |
| Watford | 134 |
| Totnes | 131 |
| Salisbury | 130 |
| Broxbourne | 126 |
| South Dorset | 124 |
| Region | Signatures |
|---|---|
| London | 3,742 |
| South West | 3,674 |
| South East | 3,526 |
| East of England | 3,010 |
| North West | 2,864 |
| Yorkshire and The Humber | 1,902 |
| East Midlands | 1,678 |
| West Midlands | 1,474 |
| North East | 1,235 |
| Scotland | 1,149 |
| Wales | 930 |
| Northern Ireland | 270 |
Debate in Parliament
MPs debated the petition in Westminster Hall on 25 June 2020. Read the debate in Hansard. House of Commons Library debate pack.
Source and receipt
- https://petition.parliament.uk/archived/petitions/305024.jsonUK Parliament Petitions API · read 2026-10-15 · SHA-256
ad86363e51acb822… - The petition on petition.parliament.uk
The petition's words are its creator's and the response is the Government's; this site quotes both and gives no view on either. Signature counts can still change while a petition is open. To report an error, send a correction request.