Deadline extended for £1,000 wet-led pub grant

The deadline for pubs to apply for the £1,000 Christmas Support Payment (CSP) has been extended until 28 February 2021.

The one-off grant was announced in December to help wet-led pubs that were unable to trade over the festive period due to local restrictions. It is available to businesses in England whose local council areas were under Tier 2 or Tier 3 rules from 2 December.

The extension comes after a British Beer and Pub Association (BBPA) survey revealed just one in four pubs had received the £1,000 payment.

The money is being distributed by local authorities, and while some have been quick to issue funds, others have been slow to pay out on support grants, prompting the BBPA to call on the prime minister to intervene.

The £1,000 grant received criticism back in December for being too small to help struggling businesses. The BBPA called the "meagre" payment an "insult" to struggling pubs who were set to lose an average of £47,000 in revenue over the festive period.

UKHospitality chief executive Kate Nicholls said the grant fell "far short of the bare minimum required to keep these businesses alive".

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