£20 Million of New Grant funding is now available for the visitor economy or small business recovery and will be officially launching today Wednesday 19th August. This grant will be delivered through the Cumbria Chamber of Commerce Growth Hub.
To be eligible for the funding you need to be able to demonstrate a 40% loss of income due to COVID 19 between March – June 2020 compared with the same period in 2019. For start-up businesses without a comparable trading period and growing businesses comparison will be made between forecasted figures and the actual business performance for March – June 2020.
“The funding can be used for “1-2-1 specialist advice which SMEs could call on to address immediate needs in response to the impact of COVID 19 e.g. HR, accountants, legal, financial, H&S, IT / digital or sector specialists etc. For the visitor economy, this could also include supporting SMEs with productivity improvements such as enhanced use of digital tools such as yield management software, mentoring, networking or other measures. It can also support to develop innovative delivery in a socially distanced economy – for example, new ways of delivering cultural events and festivals that are so critical to the visitor experience; and / or – purchase of minor equipment to adapt or adopt new technology in order to continue to deliver business activity or diversify in response to COVID 19.”
The Grant will offer between £1k and £3k with a few exceptions of up to £5k. If you wish to apply and fit the above criteria you will need to email info@cumbriagrowthhub.co.uk to be assigned your place, strictly on a first come first served basis.
You can also get more information from the Cumbria Growth hub website https://cumbriagrowthhub.co.uk/