On 2 November, following the Government’s announcement of a further lockdown period in England from 5 November to 2 December 2020, the Chancellor of the Exchequer announced further financial support for businesses.  The measures include:

• extending the application deadline to the end of January 2021 for loan guarantee schemes, i.e. the Bounce Back Loan Scheme, the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, and the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme. This will give businesses two extra months to make loan applications (relative to the current deadline of 30 November 2020); and
• adjusting the Bounce Back Loan Scheme rules to allow those businesses who have borrowed less than their maximum (i.e. less than 25% of their turnover) to top-up their existing loan. Businesses will be able to take up this option from 9 November 2020; they can make use of this option once. The Government says that it understands that some businesses did not anticipate the disruption to their business from the pandemic would go on for this long; this will ensure that they are able to benefit from the loan scheme as intended.

To read the announcement in full, click here. For further details on the schemes, click here.