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<p>The Government recognises the significant disruption the necessary actions to combat Covid-19 are having on sectors such as leisure and the fitness industry.</p><p> </p><p>During this difficult time the Treasury has worked intensively with employers, delivery partners, industry groups, and other government departments to understand the long-term impact of Covid-19 on all key areas of the economy and continues to do so.</p><p> </p><p>The Government has already announced considerable and unprecedented support for businesses and individuals. Businesses forced to close can claim grants of up to £3,000 per month (worth over £1 billion per month) through the Local Restrictions Support Grants (Closed). Any business in England forced to close due to national or local restrictions can claim grants, via their local authority, of up to £3,000 per month, per business premises, depending on rateable value.</p><p> </p><p>In addition, on 5th January, the Government announced an extra £4.6 billion to protect jobs and support affected businesses as restrictions tightened. Businesses forced to close can claim a one-off grant of up to £9,000. Local authorities in England have also been awarded an additional £500 million discretionary funding to support their local businesses. This builds on the £1.1 billion discretionary funding (worth £20 per head of population) which local authorities in England have already received to support their local economies and help businesses that have been impacted.</p><p> </p><p>The government has introduced the £100 million National Leisure Recovery Fund, to support publicly owned leisure facilities through this crisis.</p><p> </p><p>The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS) has been extended until the end of April. This provides a substantial grant for employers to cover 80% of the wages of their employees. As of 13 December, CJRS has supported 9.9 million jobs at the cost of approximately £46.4bn.</p><p> </p><p>We will continue to monitor the impact of government support on public services, businesses, individuals and sectors, including the leisure, gyms and fitness sector, as we respond to this pandemic. The upcoming Budget will be an opportunity to take stock of our wider support and set out the next stage of our economic response to the pandemic; however it must be recognised that it will not be possible to preserve every job or business indefinitely, nor stand in the way of the economy adapting and people finding new jobs or starting new businesses.</p> |