Discretionary Grants Fund set to benefit local businesses

Hundreds of businesses across Herefordshire that did not meet the criteria for previous government Covid-19 grants could now benefit from a discretionary grant fund.

To date, around £55.2m has been paid out to more than 4,700 businesses in the county in government grant funding support in response to the impact of Covid-19, however not all businesses have been eligible for these grants.

The government has now introduced an additional discretionary grants fund which will help provide assistance to some of the businesses that have not had access to other support schemes. The discretionary grants fund managed by Herefordshire Council will award grants reflecting the size of business, level of fixed property costs and scale of impact experienced.

The amount of funding the council has received is limited at £3.2m, so there is a set of eligibility criteria which each applicant will need to meet.

Businesses eligible to receive this new funding must be a small or micro business, charity, or social enterprises with a turnover of not more than £10.2m and fewer than 50 staff.

Applicants must be either a small businesses in shared offices or other flexible workspaces; market traders with fixed building costs who do not have their own business rates assessment; bed & breakfasts which pay council tax instead of business rates or charity properties in receipt of charitable business rates relief.

Cllr Ellie Chowns, Cabinet Member for Environment, Economy and Skills, said: “The Covid-19 crisis has hit many Herefordshire businesses very hard, and I know this has been a deeply worrying time for them. We know that there are many who have not been eligible for central government grant funding to date, so I am very pleased that this new grant is now available. It will provide much-needed assistance to some of the businesses that have ‘fallen through the cracks’ of existing support schemes.

“Unfortunately the funding we have been given is very limited – not enough to plug all the gaps. In distributing this funding we are trying to help as many businesses as possible, while continuing to press government for further funding to support the local economy and help us build back better.”

Applications must be received by 23:59, Sunday 28th June 2020.

Further details, the full eligibility criteria for businesses and how to apply can be found on the Herefordshire Council website at http://www.herefordshire.gov.uk/discretionarygrant