Following a small number of enquiries, a financial support package has opened today – aimed at helping businesses in the Lisburn and Castlereagh area impacted by the recent flooding.
The scheme, which is run by the Department for the Economy and administered by Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council, will be open until 5pm on 30th November.
A one-off payment of £7,500 will be given to eligible businesses that have been flooded and need support for clean-up costs and/or resilience measures. The purpose of the scheme is to help re-establish the affected businesses as soon as is practicably possible.
To be eligible, the business must have been occupied/trading and be formally registered/ paying appropriate rates to Land & Property Services (LPS), on the date of the flooding incident. In addition, it must also be trading as an SME and plan to re-open its doors in due course.
Further checks must ensure that the local council has confirmed the flooding occurred within the qualifying period and that the business’s insurance does not cover flood damage. The business must be responsible for the immediate clean-up costs and work needed to start trading again.
Staff from Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council will carry out an initial inspection of each business and will provide application forms to eligible businesses. Payments will be made by the council, upon confirmation that the eligibility criteria have been met.
What to do now:
If you are a business in the local area which has been affected by flooding and believe you meet the eligibility criteria, please contact Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council’s Environmental Health team so they can carry out an inspection of your premises. They will then provide you with an application form as appropriate. Robust evidence will be required. Please note that it may be useful to show the inspection team photos or footage taken of your business at the time of the flooding.
Email: ehealth@lisburncastlereagh.gov.uk
Phone: 028 9244 7397
Before contacting the council, please note the following:
- Flooding refers to an ingress of water from the ground up (not rainwater penetration) which took place between 29th October – 4th November
- Individual businesses will need to take their own financial advice about the taxable status of any payment
- The funding is not intended to cover trading losses
- If an individual owns several businesses that have been flooded, each business can be considered on its own merits
- There is a limit of one payment per business
- Where multiple business were trading from the same property, each individual business can apply, subject to eligibility
- If only a proportion of businesses in the same property were flooded, only those businesses who were flooded may apply
- The focus is on the flooding of the business and the immediate costs to repair that damage
- Payment is not to support any indirect losses, nor will it exceed any work needed to re-establish a business after flooding