Following the release of funds from central government, Cheshire East Council have begun the roll out of grants to support the smallest businesses during the Covid-19 outbreak.
Around 8000 businesses in the borough are eligible to receive grants of up to £25,000, totalling £90 million of government funding for businesses in Cheshire East.
From Wednesday 1st April, Cheshire East Council began releasing the grants to qualifying businesses and is urging businesses to share bank details with the council so they can receive the emergency Covid-19 funding. For businesses that do not pay business rates by direct debit or qualify for small business rate relief, the council does not hold any bank details and will be unable to make grant payments via cheque.
Two new grant schemes are being funded by the government in response to the pandemic, which cover three scenarios:
- A small business grant fund of £10,000 for all businesses in receipt of small business rate relief; and
- Grant funding of £10,000 for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with property –where the rateable value is below £15,000; or
- Grant funding of £25,000 for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with property – where the rateable value is between £15,000 and less than £51,000.
Eligible businesses, who have registered their bank account details with the council, should begin to receive their grant funding – via BACS transfer – automatically from 6 April onwards.
Receiving a government business grant is a free and automatic service. There is no lengthy application process and no need for businesses to employ an agency service or broker.
Philip Kerr, Business & Growth Manager at Cheshire East Council’s Economic Development team said:
We received our funding from government on Wednesday and have already started to roll out the grants.
“As long as we have bank details for the business and they qualify for the grant they will automatically receive the grant into their account. Bank details should be sent to us via our web form on this link:
“We are aware of a few agents that have been contacting businesses offering to ‘apply on their behalf for a fee’ – we are keen to stress there is no application process as the grants are applied automatically so they should not use agents or brokers – we want the businesses to benefit from all the funding.
“We have been inundated with follow up calls – we understand that businesses are keen to get hold of the grant but there are over 8000 of them and we are trying to keep the line open for those businesses who cannot register their bank details or find their business rates ref number.
“So it would be really appreciated if you businesses could bear with us and not ring to follow up their grant. If they want to know how we are getting on and where grant distribution is up to we are asking them to check our website for updates”
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