The Prime Minister has announced a national lockdown and instructed people to stay at home to control the virus, protect the NHS and save lives.

Businesses and venues

• Non-essential retail, hospitality and personal care services must close, or remain closed.
• Restaurants can continue delivery, takeaway or click-and-collect of food and non-alcoholic drinks, but venues will no longer be able to serve takeaway or click-and-collect alcohol.
• Essential shops and garden centres can remain open. Entertainment venues and animal attractions such as zoos must close, but the outdoor areas of venues such as heritage homes and botanical gardens can remain open, to be used for exercise. Playgrounds may also remain open.
• Places of worship can also remain open, but you may only visit with your household.
• Indoor and outdoor sports facilities including sports courts, gyms, golf courses, swimming pools, and riding arenas must also close. Elite sport and disabled sport can continue, as can PE lessons for those children attending school.

Everyone should follow the new rules from now, and they will become law from 00.01 on Wednesday 6 January 2021.

Read more here

Approximately 1 in 3 people with COVID-19 have no symptoms, but can still pass the virus to others without knowing.

Rapid, asymptomatic testing is now available for members of the community - such as key workers - using ‘rapid tests’ or ‘lateral flow tests’, to help reduce the spread of COVID-19 in the community and bring down the current high rates of infection in our Borough. 

You can book your rapid test from (Tuesday 5 January) at:

• Hounslow House
• Heston Library

Other sites are due to open for pre-booked rapid test appointments from next week onwards and further details will be provided soon.

Sites will be open for pre-booked appointments only from 8am-4pm, seven days a week, for approximately six weeks.

Book your rapid test online or by calling 0207 084 9697

Book Now

A request to all Hounslow Businesses.  Do you have spare 18 room dividers (approximately 1.8m high and 1.2m wide), ideally wipeable?

Hounslow Council requires these dividers for a vaccination centre in Chiswick Health Centre . If you are happy to help, please get in touch by emailing

TownCentre.Management@hounslow.gov.uk

Please note : Public health will clean and isolate any equipment lent to them for this purpose.

There are a number of grants now available for business in the borough and the Council is working hard to get systems and processes in place to administer the different grants as quickly as possible. 

THIS page contains details of live grant schemes, with links for application, and will be updated when new grants become available to businesses in Hounslow.  

 If you are not certain which grant is applicable to your business please review the GRANTS POLICY.

Find out more

 You have received this bulletin as you have subscribed to either the Covid-19 Business Recovery or Invest Hounslow newsletters ( Or if you have applied for a grant via Business Rates Hounslow). If you'd like to subscribe to more newsletters on a variety of topics from Hounslow Council, please click here.