New business supports grants made available for 600 SMEs

A new discretionary fund worth more than £3 million has launched today (June 5), for businesses who fell outside the scope of the Government’s previous emergency business grant schemes.

An additional 600 businesses are set to benefit from grants of £5000.

These include small businesses that offer shared office or flexible workspaces such as industrial parks, science parks and incubators.

Regular market traders with fixed building costs who do not have their own business rates assessment are also eligible as are bed and breakfasts, which pay council tax rather than businesses rates.

Charity properties in receipt of charitable business rates relief should be able to get the grant too.

Councillor Ged Bell, cabinet member for employment & culture at Newcastle City Council said: “We know businesses across the city are really struggling and we are pleased that we can launch this new fund today to help support our local economy.

“This discretionary fund is for the many small businesses that missed out on previous funds, such as the high proportion of our city’s businesses that operate out of shared workspaces.

“Government has set the parameters of this funding and we’ve further developed it, to ensure we can get cash to as many businesses as we can.

“This fund will also support owners of B&Bs who couldn’t take in any guests due to the coronavirus pandemic, as well as some market traders and the charity sector, which support the most vulnerable people in our city.

“We need to stress that this funding, unlike previous grants, will need to be capped at around 600 businesses so we would urge businesses to act fast before it is all allocated.

“We will be announcing further support measures for businesses worth £1.5 million in the next couple of weeks.

“These are challenging times for SMEs but Newcastle City Council is committed to doing all we can to support them through this economic and health crisis.”

Full details on eligibility and how to apply are available at www.newcastle.gov.uk/covidbusinesssupport