Our youth and community centres are an important hub for many local communities, providing a meeting place for voluntary and youth groups to come together.

In recognition of their importance, we have extended the Government’s COVID-19 financial support for businesses to ensure all community centres in South Gloucestershire receive additional funding to help them keep afloat during the coronavirus pandemic.

As part of the measures being put in place by Government to support small businesses impacted by coronavirus, all 31 of South Gloucestershire’s youth and community centres will benefit from a business rates holiday this year. Most (28 out of 31) of these centres are also due to receive cash grants to help offset the income that they have lost due to being closed at the current time. This cash support is for organisations with a rateable value (which is used to calculate business rates bills) under £51,000, and those eligible will receive £15,000 or £25,000 based on their individual rateable values.

However, three of South Gloucestershire’s community centres have rateable values over £51,000 and are therefore are not eligible for a cash grant, despite suffering the same financial difficulties as other facilities. As a result, we have taken the decision to extend this grant funding to the three local community centres which were not eligible under the scheme. These are Hanham Community Centre, Banjo Island Community & Sports Association (Cadbury Heath) and Ridgewood Community Association (Yate). Each will receive £25,000, which will allow them to continue their positive and highly valued work.

This additional funding will be coupled with lobbying Government to extend the business support grant scheme to cover all community and youth centres irrelevant of their rateable value. Should government guidance change following lobbying and the scheme be extended to incorporate these three community centres, the funding provided by the council will be recouped from the government’s scheme and put towards other forms of support during these challenging times.

For more information about our support for local businesses visit southglos.gov.uk/businessinfo