Council has received £40m to help thousands of Milton Keynes businesses survive coronavirus

About 3,800 businesses in the city, including shops, restaurants, pubs, leisure venues and nurseries were forced to close as part of the Government’s policy to stop the spread of the deadly virus.

“There are 330 businesses where we hold their bank details,” said council leader Pete Marland. “They will be receiving the money straight into their accounts, and they won’t have to do anything.”

But there are also some 3,500 other businesses in the city that pay business rates to Milton Keynes Council, where the council does not hold bank account details.

Cllr Marland (Lab, Wolverton) said the council has launched a portal on its website where businesses would be able to apply for their grants. The portal is here: https://br-grant-mkc.lgss-revs-bens.com/All businesses in receipt of small business rate relief, or rural rate relief are eligible for a £10,000 grant.

There will also be a business rate payment holiday for 12 months and the council is re-issuing bills.

Specific grants to retail, hospitality and leisure businesses are being paid.

This is of £10,000 where the rateable value is less than £15,000, increasing to £25,000 where the rateable value is between £15,000 and £50,999.

The Government through various announcements decided to pay the grants because they had made the decision to lockdown the economy, and businesses could not do anything about it.

Cllr Marland added that businesses applying for the grants may have to wait for checks to be made.

“You can’t log on and apply as Joe Bloggs to get the money,” said Cllr Marland. “We have to make sure that the businesses applying are who they say they are.” This will be done by the use of business rates reference numbers, he said.

The council’s website says the application process should take five minutes and the council aims to verify eligibility and process any payments between three and 10 working days.

“Please do not contact the council during this time as we cannot give progress updates on individual cases,” the website reads.