The City Council is making Omicron grants of up to £4000 available for Oxford businesses that have been severely impacted by the Omicron variant of COVID-19.
The Additional Restrictions Grants scheme, funded by central government and administered by the Council, provides one-off grants of up to £4000, covering the period of December 2021 - January 2022.
Grants are available to all businesses, including those outside the business rates system. The scheme covers all businesses who have not been eligible to apply for the Council’s Omicron Hospitality and Leisure grants, such as:
- Wedding and events
- Personal services, for example, hairdressers, nail bars, etc.
- Takeaways affected by the lack of lunchtime trade
- Sports and exercise businesses, such as gyms or yoga studios
- Freelance and mobile businesses (including caterers, events, hair, beauty and wedding related businesses)
- English language schools
Grants will be allocated to businesses dependent on their fixed costs, losses and number of employees. These grants are not for the self-employed and cannot be used to support wages.
The closing date for the Omicron Additional Restrictions Grants is Friday 25 February.
Apply for an Omicron Additional Restrictions Grant.
“This has been a really tough time for many local businesses, on the one hand most have still been able to continue to trade but on the other, they’ve seen massively depleted numbers.
“There is quite a short time period available to apply for the grants, so I’d urge local businesses to check their availability on the website and apply as soon as possible for this much-needed support.”
Councillor Ed Turner, Oxford City Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance and Asset Management
At every stage of the pandemic the City Council has included robust anti-fraud checks in its applications process. So far, these checks have stopped an estimated £17m of incorrect, non-applicable or – in some cases – fraudulent applications in Oxford.
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