Details of Government’s £50 bike repair voucher released

Long-awaited detail of the Government’s £50 bike repair voucher scheme has broken cover.

In order to qualify to assist claimants those repairing the bike must possess a valid public liability insurance cover of £2 million. Each individual shop in a chain of stores must register individually to participate and do so by the end of the month.

Further criteria are outlined on application process, which you can now complete here. In a bid to prevent fraud, evidence of repair will need to be provided, including a photograph of the repair and a receipt as part of the claim upload.

Members of the public will be invited to apply for their voucher in the coming weeks once a database of registered professionals exists. The distribution of vouchers will then be staggered to prevent a spike in demand for repairs that cannot be met by already busy workshops.

Shops are invited to fill out a short survey on the process in a bid to aid Government in effective roll out of the new scheme.

A map of participating shops and mobile mechanics will soon be available via the Energy Saving Trust website, once the scheme goes live. The cost of the repair will also be claimed via this website.

Ahead of registration, shops would be wise to read through the Government’s information pack, readable in full here.

According to the Government’s website “The Fix your Bike Voucher Scheme has been set up to encourage more people to embrace cycling, to boost the number of commuting and leisure trips, and to promote an alternative to public transport, while social distancing measures are in place.

“It also aims to help reduce the number of short journeys made by private cars. ”

The scheme first broke cover in May when transport secretary Grant Schapps announced a £2 billion package for walking and cycling to be delivered over the five-year Government term. Cycling has rocketed by as much as 300% during the lockdown period, with bikes said to have been sold to as much as 5% of the entire population.

The bike repair voucher scheme appears, at this time, to only be available to shops based in England.