New grants of between £3,000 and £120,000 are now available to support businesses in Buckinghamshire looking to invest in resilience, repurposing or recovery initiatives as they prepare to overcome the challenges presented by the COVID-19 (coronavirus) crisis.
The Buckinghamshire Recovery Investment Fund, provided by Buckinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP), is part of a coordinated support programme for businesses, with Buckinghamshire LEP working closely alongside Buckinghamshire Business First and Buckinghamshire Council.
Andrew M. Smith, Chair of Buckinghamshire Local Enterprise Partnership, said:
“These grants are being made available to support any eligible business based in Buckinghamshire who have started to make plans for how they can recover from the current Covid-19 crisis and are looking at activity to ensure their recovery, future resilience and growth. In addition, these grants are intended to complement those national measures already in place, to support Buckinghamshire businesses during this challenging time.”
Michael Garvey, Chair of Buckinghamshire Business First, added: “Over the past few months we have heard from many Buckinghamshire businesses impacted by COVID-19. We are working hard to do everything we can to support them through these challenging times and help them not only survive but position themselves for recovery. This new fund has been set up to provide support for local businesses whose future viability has been adversely impacted, to support them to grow and flourish post-COVID.”
Match-funded grants of between £3,000 and £120,000 are available to support businesses with innovative projects that contribute towards any of the following: new income streams / product development; improvements in productivity / profitability; jobs growth; accelerated COVID-19 recovery; and future resilience.
Businesses must match-fund 25% of the total project value. For example, the minimum project value which can be supported is £4,000 (the business invests £1,000 and the grant can fund £3,000). The maximum grant value is £120,000 (meaning the match-funding required will be £40,000 for a project value of £160,000 or more to achieve the maximum grant).
Grants are available to organisations that: meet the definition of a small and medium-sized enterprise (SME); have two or more PAYE employees; are registered in the Buckinghamshire LEP area; have not received over €200,000 of de minimis aid in the last three years; and were in good financial health prior to 29th February 2020.
For further details on these grants and an application form, please go to: www.bbf.uk.com/BRIF.