Rishi Sunak said the one-off "top-up grants" for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses were to help businesses through to the spring.

A £594 million discretionary fund has also been made available to support other impacted businesses.

It follows the prime minister’s announcement last night that these business will be closed until at least February half-term in order to help control the virus.

The cash is provided on a per-property basis to support businesses through the latest restrictions, and is expected to benefit more than 600,000 business properties, worth £4 billion in total across all nations of the UK.

A further £594 million is also being made available for local authorities and the devolved administrations to support other businesses not eligible for the grants, that might be affected by the restrictions. Businesses should apply to their local authorities.

The one-off top-ups will be granted to closed businesses as follows:

• £4,000 for businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or under
• £6,000 for businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000
• £9,000 for businesses with a rateable value of over £51,000

Business support is a devolved policy and therefore the responsibility of the devolved administrations, which will receive additional funding as a result of these announcements.

• The Scottish government will receive £375 million
• The Welsh government will receive £227 million
• The Northern Ireland executive will receive £127 million