Liverpool City Council has launched an action plan to help hospitality businesses get back up and running post-lockdown, which includes business grants offerings and closing streets to traffic to aid recovery.
Independent restaurants can apply for up to £4,000 to purchase outdoor furniture so they can trade in the streets and on pavements.
The fee for a new street café licence, around £600, has also been waived for new applications.
Castle Street and Bold Street will be closed to traffic to allow businesses to trade outside in the city centre.
The council has so far distributed more than £90m of central government funding to over 7,300 small businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors.
The measures follow a tough lockdown for the hospitality sector. The council warned in an interview with EG that the sector would lose out on £1.5bn of business this year due to the pandemic.
The sectors usually bring in around £3.3bn to the city’s economy. However, the council says this could drop to £1.8bn in 2020 if social distancing restrictions are not eased and the country suffers a second wave of Covid-19 cases.
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