Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak rolled out 4.6 billion pounds ($6.2 billion) of new support to help U.K. businesses forced to close during the pandemic, as the country enters its third lockdown.<\/p>\n
Retail, hospitality and leisure businesses will be entitled to one-off<\/span> top up grants of as much as 9,000 pounds to tide them over until the spring, the Treasury said in a statement Tuesday. That\u2019s on top of existing grants of as much as 3,000 pounds per month for companies required to shut their doors because of coronavirus restrictions.<\/p>\n The additional aid comes after business groups demanded more support in the wake of new coronavirus restrictions announced by Prime Minister Boris Johnson late Monday. It adds to the 280 billion pounds it has cost the government so far to tackle the virus and support firms and workers through the pandemic.<\/p>\n \u201cThis will help businesses to get through the months ahead — and crucially it will help sustain jobs, so workers can be ready to return when they are able to reopen,\u201d Sunak said in the statement.<\/p>\n Sunak also made a further 594 million pounds of discretionary funding available to businesses in other sectors that are also impacted by the coronavirus lockdown.<\/p>\n