New fund to support local businesses

An additional funding support will be available from early June to help businesses with recovery from the coronavirus crisis.

All Councils have now received Government guidance on developing a new Local Discretionary Fund. This Fund will offer limited financial support to help businesses in specific sectors that have not received any public funding support during the pandemic.

Given the detailed planning required to establish the Fund, the Council and the Government expect the application process to be open in early June. An application form will be available shortly.

The Fund is mainly designed to support small businesses in defined sectors with less than 50 employees. The maximum grant available will be £25,000, though we, and Government, predict that most payments will be £10,000 or less.

Hospitality businesses and small manufacturers could potentially receive up to £25K dependent on Covid-19 impacts and the size of their business.

Some shared business accommodation and B&B’s may be able to access up to £10K dependent on size and business impact. Some charities may be able to access some funding support but these are likely to be less than £10K.

There are two mandatory criteria that the Government are imposing in the administration of this scheme;

The funding is only available to those businesses who are not eligible for other support schemes –

• For example, businesses that have already received a Business Rates Grant from the Council are not eligible for the Discretionary Grant. Please note – the exception to this is those businesses who have applied for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme as they are still eligible to apply for this funding even if they have furloughed staff.
• Only businesses which were trading on 11^th March, 2020 are eligible for the scheme. Companies in administration, are insolvent or where a striking-off notice has been made are not eligible for funding under this scheme.

There will be stringent business checks to ensure only legitimate claims are considered.

Councillor Phil Riley, Executive Member for Growth and Development, said:

This fund is separate and different from the previous Government grants, and there are different rules and guidelines to follow. There are different eligibility requirements for this round of funds.

It has taken a while to pin down the rules for this. Most grants will be under £10,000 and we expect that there will be more demand than there are funds. Unfortunately, there is not anywhere near as much money in this pot by a long shot and it can only go so far. Certain businesses will have priority based on ultimate need and impact.

We are developing a new way to apply for these and we believe businesses will be able to apply from early June.”

In the meantime, while we progress our planning, please address any enquiries via email at: businessgrowth@blackburn.gov.uk