Published Monday 1 June 2020 at 9:04
Eligible businesses are being urged to apply for a new grant, which has opened today (June 1).
The Council has been providing support to businesses through facilitating grants, advice and support since lockdown measures were announced in March.
The latest £2.25m aims to offer financial help to local businesses that were not eligible to access grant support from the Small Business Grant Fund and Retail Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund.
The discretionary grant programme will be open for business applications via the Council’s website from 9am on Monday, 1 June and close on midnight Sunday, 14 June.
The Council’s grants programme is predominantly aimed at small and micro-businesses. The guidance issued to the Council by the Government identifies the following businesses as priorities for funding:
- Small and micro-businesses, as defined in Section 33, Part 2 of the Small Business, Enterprise and Employment Act 2015 and the Companies Act 2006
- Businesses with relatively high fixed property-related costs
- Businesses which can evidence they have experienced a significant fall in income due to COVID-19
- Businesses which occupy property, or part of a property, with a rateable value or annual rent or annual mortgage payments below £51,000
- Small businesses in shared or other flexible workspaces, including mills and units in industrial or business parks which do not have their own Business Rates assessment
- Regular market traders with fixed building costs, such as rent, who do not have their own Business Rates assessment
- Bed & Breakfasts which pay Council Tax instead of Business Rates
- Charity properties in receipt of charitable business rates relief which would otherwise have been eligible for Small Business Rates Relief (including a rateable value of less than £15,000)
The Council is adapting Government guidance to also include small businesses in manufacturing and production, given the economic importance of this sector to the Borough.
Businesses that have already received financial support from the Small Business Grant Fund and Retail Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund will not be eligible to access the new discretionary fund.
The maximum discretionary grant available is £25,000 and will be awarded in exceptional circumstances. We expect most discretionary grant payments to be under £10,000. Businesses will need to provide evidence in support of their funding applications.
Councillor Phil Riley, Executive Member for Growth and Development, said:
This has been an incredibly difficult time for businesses in our borough. Our priority as a Council has been to support them as much as we can.
We are encouraging local businesses that meet the criteria guiding our new discretionary grant to apply to the Council from today. The additional funding from Government to support our local businesses is welcome. However, we expect business need to outweigh the amount of funding available. We will review the situation, as we progress with the scheme, and seek further Government funding if we are unable to support all eligible businesses in acute economic need.
The application form and guidance will be found on the Council’s website.
We are also asking those with queries to make contact via businessgrowth@blackburn.gov.uk