The Government is making additional funding available to allow Buckinghamshire Council to further support small businesses in Buckinghamshire.
The fund can award up to £10,000 to eligible businesses that have not received financial support through other schemes such as the Small Business Grants Fund and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund.
So far, Buckinghamshire Council has distributed over £78 million to businesses in Buckinghamshire under these schemes. Buckinghamshire Council teams are working hard to process the remaining applications and get money out to businesses who qualify for financial help.
The additional new discretionary funding will help eligible small businesses with high fixed property-related costs such as rent, utilities (water, heat and light) and broadband provision.
The fund is now open to accept applications online at
https://bbf.uk.com/business-support/local-authority-small-business-disc…
To access the fund, businesses must be a small or micro business with under 50 employees as defined by the Companies Act 2006 and must have been trading on 11th March 2020. Applicants must also be able to demonstrate that they have seen a significant drop of income due to Coronavirus restriction measures.
It is expected that demand for these grants will be exceptionally high, and as such, priority will be given to:
- Small businesses in shared offices or other flexible workspaces. Examples could include units in industrial parks, science parks and incubators that do not have
their own business rates assessment;
- Regular market traders with fixed building costs, such as rent, who do not have their own business rates assessment;
- Bed & Breakfasts that pay Council Tax instead of business rates; and
- Charities in receipt of charitable business rates relief that would otherwise have been eligible for Small Business Rates Relief or Rural Rate Relief.
If your business is not on the above list, you may still apply and will need to supply evidence that it meets all the following criteria:
- Businesses that occupy property, or part of a property, with a rateable value or annual rent or annual mortgage payments below £51,000
- Businesses that can demonstrate that they have suffered a significant fall in income due to the COVID-19 crisis
- Businesses with fewer than 50 employees, turnover of not more than £10.2 million, and a balance sheet of not more than £5.1 million
- Businesses that were trading on or before 11th March 2020
Commenting, Greg said: "This extra fund will be a life line to businesses who have not been eligible for grants before now. I have been constantly pushing the Treasury for additional measures to support business throughout this crisis and am pleased this new scheme is now open."