New grants for business recovery

Small firms in England can benefit from new government funding to help them recover from Covid-19.

Small and medium sized businesses can obtain grants of between £1,000 - £5,000 to help them access new technology and other equipment as well as professional, legal, financial or other advice to help them recover.

The new funding is on top of existing government measures to support businesses, including a £2bn Kickstart Scheme (announced in the Summer Economic Update) to create new and fully subsidised jobs for young people across the country, as well as £1.6bn to boost employment support schemes, training and apprenticeships to help people looking for a job.

The new grants are also in addition to a £10m package announced earlier this month to help to kickstart the tourism industry and support the visitor economy.

This new support will be fully funded by the government from the England European Regional Development Fund and distributed through Growth Hubs, embedded in local areas across England.

Each Local Enterprise Partnership area in the country will be set a minimum of £250,000, to be reviewed as the funds are delivered. Growth Hubs will work across the country with local groups to provide support where it is needed.

Activities supported through the scheme can include:

• One-to-many events providing guidance to respond to coronavirus,

• Grants (£1,000 - £5,000) to help businesses access specialist professional advice such as HR, accountants, legal, financial, IT and digital, and to purchase minor equipment to adapt or adopt new technology in order to continue to deliver business activity or diversify.

For further help, please check out our Business after COVID-19: Transition Knowledge Hub.