Grants of up to £9,000 per property will be offered to businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors, the Treasury has said.

The payments are expected to cost £4 billion and support 600,000 business properties across the UK.

Another £594 million will be made available to councils and devolved nations to support businesses not covered by the new grants.

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Chancellor Rishi Sunak said: “The new strain of the virus presents us all with a huge challenge – and, whilst the vaccine is being rolled out, we have needed to tighten restrictions further.

“Throughout the pandemic we’ve taken swift action to protect lives and livelihoods and today we’re announcing a further cash injection to support businesses and jobs until the spring.

“This 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.”

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The Treasury said the one-off grants will be linked to business rates, with payments of £4,000 for businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or less, £6,000 for businesses with a rateable value of between £15,000 and £51,000, and £9,000 for businesses with a rateable value of more than £51,000.

It comes after Oxford East MP Anneliese Dodds, who is Shadow Chancellor, criticised the Prime Minister for not setting out any details about financial support in his lockdown announcement last night.

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She tweeted: "A lockdown on the same scale as last March makes further changes to economic support inevitable.

"This should have been set out last night - but yet again the PM kept people in the dark."

She had also urged the Chancellor to 'act today' rather than 'waiting days to set the record straight'.