New fund for forgotten businesses

Businesses in North West Leicestershire can now apply for money from the Discretionary Grants Fund.

North West Leicestershire District Council has been allocated an additional £1 million to support businesses across the district as part of the Government’s Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund.

The scheme aims to help businesses through the coronavirus pandemic in addition to the Small Business Grant and the Retail, Leisure and Hospitality Grant Funds.

North West Leicestershire District Council says you may be eligible if your business:

Has ongoing fixed building-related costs
Can demonstrate that they have suffered a significant fall in income due to the Coronavirus (COVID-19) crisis
Has fewer than 50 employees
Was trading on 11 March 2020.

Priority for certain types of businesses

The majority of this funding will be prioritised in line with Government’s national priorities: 

Small businesses in shared offices or other flexible workspaces - e.g. units in industrial parks, science parks and incubators which 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 which pay Council Tax instead of business rates
Charity properties in receipt of charitable business rates relief which would otherwise have been eligible for Small Business Rates Relief or Rural Rate Relief.

A spokesperson from the District Council has said: "We are also keen to support any other type of business in North West Leicestershire who can demonstrate a significant impact to their business income due to the pandemic restrictions and who continue to pay relatively high and ongoing fixed costs."

Applications close at 11.59pm on Sunday 14 June 2020.

If you have any queries about this scheme, you can contact discretionarygrantfund@nwleicestershire.gov.uk.