Applications for discretionary Additional Restrictions Grants will go live from Monday in the Cotswold and Forest of Dean district council areas.

The scheme, which followed the mandatory grant available earlier this month, is aimed at smaller businesses which might not have qualified for the initial support after being affected by the November lockdown restrictions in England.

Funded by the Government, it is administered by councils with each authority providing its own application process.

Applications for both the Cotswolds and Forest of Dean will go live from 9am on Monday until December 6.

Councillor Bernie O'Neill, cabinet Member for the economy at Forest of Dean District Council, said: "We launched the mandatory scheme two weeks ago and that has been very successful in getting money straight to eligible businesses.

"Once again we are keeping the application process as simple as we can so that we can verify applications swiftly and make payments as soon as possible."

To qualify for the Additional Restrictions Grant a business must have been trading prior to restrictions coming into force on November 5, have been instructed to close by national restrictions and not liable to pay business rates or been severely impacted by national restrictions, regardless of whether the business is liable to pay business rates, have high fixed property costs and fall within one of the following categories:

• Regular market traders with fixed building costs, such as rent and who do not have their own business rate assessment.
• Bed and breakfast establishments which pay Council Tax instead of business rates.
• Charity properties which do not have their own business rate assessment.
• Businesses that supply goods or services to the retail, hospitality, leisure and events sector who do or do not have their own business rate assessment, or where permitted to continue to trade, the business has been severely impacted by the closure of the retail, hospitality, leisure and event sectors.
• Travel companies or those transport providers who have been severely impacted by restrictions.
• Small businesses in shared office or other flexible workspaces which do not have their own business rate assessment and have been severely impacted.
• Those working from home who are not eligible for the self-employed income support scheme or coronavirus job retention scheme and have high fixed business costs such as rent, lease, hire purchase costs, franchise payments or other costs that would not be saved by not trading.