B&B owners miss out on government grants

Bed and Breakfast owners in Herefordshire say they have been excluded from government support which was supposed to help small businesses affected by the coronavirus lockdown.

Herefordshire Council is managing a £3.2m discretionary grants fund and will award funds based on the size of business and level of fixed property costs.

But Fiona Yates, of the Moats in Coddington near Ledbury, said most B&B owners will miss out on the grants.

“You are only entitled to claim for property costs and on the face of it I thought that meant council tax, utilities, building insurance, etc but they’ve limited it to mortgage and rent payments and licence fees.

“If you are mortgaged or rent your property. The terms of that mortgage or lease would prevent you from subletting which means hardly any of us will be able to claim the grant which in its own wording says it’s for us.”

She said it was the third time B&B owners had missed out on government support.

“The first time they shut out hospitality businesses who pay council tax and not business rates.

“The second time they shut out all self employed bed and breakfast owners on the basis that if we claimed the self-employment support from the government you couldn’t claim the grant. There was a lot of protest and they had to change that.

“It means that 99% who own domestic B&Bs will be excluded because we either own it outright or our mortgages and leases wouldn’t allow us to run a B&B anyhow.

“The hospitality industry is going to be the last to be allowed to reopen and we need all the help we can get.”

A council spokesman said the grants are aimed at firms with high ongoing property costs, such as rent or mortgage payments.

“The amount of funding the council has received is very limited, so the eligibility criteria in place for this round of funding, is targeted at the types of businesses that government has asked the council to prioritise,” he said.