Cheshire and Warrington Local Enterprise Partnership have announced a £1 million restructure grant to help small businesses meet some of the additional costs created by the COVID restrictions.
This new grant will offer businesses up to 80% (to a maximum of £5,000) on capital items needed to recover or restructure their business to allow them to trade through the Coronavirus pandemic.
Examples of capital items include:
- IT equipment e.g. tablets used to support customer ‘track & trace’ obligations and contactless payment systems
- Fixed PPE e.g. plastic screens and sanitiser dispensers
- Building alterations e.g. creation of one-way systems, building of outdoor seating, serving hatches.
Who can apply?
The grant is available for businesses who satisfy each of the following criteria:
- Must be a small to medium sized Cheshire and Warrington based business
- Must be a business who either has commercial premises and/or employs additional staff
- Must not have previously received a Cheshire and Warrington COVID Recovery Capital Grant
- Must have a business bank account and use that account for grant spending.
Exclusions:
- The grant can only fund retrospective spends from 1 October 2020
- There is a £500 maximum grant for individual laptops for staff who are working from home
- There is a £500 maximum grant for i-pads for track and trace purposes
- Other types of spend will be benchmarked to determine the level of grant funding offered
- Mobile phones are not covered
- Desk and furniture for home based working is not covered
- A maximum of 5 suppliers per grant application with a minimum spend of £500 per supplier.
How can I apply?
Applications must be made online here.
The grant application process will be delivered across 5 separate rounds as follows:
- Round 1: Opens at 12noon on Wednesday 28th October 2020 and closes once they have received approximately 20% of the overall budget allocation
- Round 2: Opens at 12noon on Monday 9th November 2020 and closes once they have received approximately 20% of the overall budget allocation
- Round 3: Opens at 12noon on Monday 23rd November 2020 and closes once they have received approximately 20% of the overall budget allocation
- Round 4: Opens at 12noon on Monday 7th December 2020 and closes once they have received approximately 20% of the overall budget allocation
- Round 5: Opens at 12noon on Monday 14th December 2020 and closes once they have received approximately 20% of the overall budget allocation.
Further information can be found here.
As always, if you have any questions or concerns please do not hesitate to contact your usual partner.
