The budget on March 3 is expected to include help for businesses.

Over the weekend the Chancellor announced a new £5bn grant scheme for High Street businesses.

Rishi Sunak said that he will be making grants, worth up to £18,000 per firm, will help shops and pubs reopen as England eases lockdown.

Frome Chamber of Commerce has said, like so many business groups, that it would love to see increased support.

It told Nub News: " Like businesses across the UK, Frome's will be no different in wanting to see continued support to enable them to ride out the rest of this pandemic and secure their future. An extension to the furlough scheme, continued assistance to those businesses which will be the last to open up, reduced VAT for hospitality will all be welcome but it remains that there are a lot of self employed business people who have had precious little support. It would be good to see some help for them in the budget.

"The Chamber remains optimistic for Frome. We've seen new businesses opening up during the past year which is really heartening. But there is obviously concern about what will be revealed as we get back to the 'new normal' and government support is wound down. "

One other possibility for March 2, is that the Chancellor will extend the business rates holiday - brought in last year to support shops - beyond its current end date of 31 March.

Although Frome, the biggest town in Mendip, is often considered affluent, and currently house prices are growing in double digits, it is not commercially robust.

The main shopping areas in central Frome runs along Bath Street, which has several empty shops and the Westway, which has just announced that the central Co-op will not be renewing its lease. That means there will be three large retail units empty in the precinct.

You can read about that news by clicking HERE : the Frome Nub News site

The other two shopping areas are Catherine Hill and Cheap Street.

There is actually a High Street in Frome, between Catherine Street and Wine Street but it no longer has any shops, with all the property now housing.

According to research by the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) up to 250,000 companies face closure this year.