Up to £25,000 available for Kettering firms hit by Covid crisis

Small businesses in the Kettering district hit hard by the Covid-19 crisis can apply for a grant of up to £25,000 to help.

Kettering Council will launch a discretionary business grant scheme tomorrow (Monday) after it was allocated about £800,000 of Government funding to support local firms.

The new fund is aimed at small businesses that can demonstrate they have suffered a significant fall in income because of the Covid-19 crisis, have relatively high ongoing fixed property-related costs and occupy property, or part of a property, with a rateable value or annual rent or annual mortgage payments below £51,000.

Cllr Lloyd Bunday, Kettering Council’s portfolio holder for finance, said: “It is vital that we support our small businesses during this difficult time, so I am pleased to open the discretionary grants fund for applications.

"I encourage any small business owner who is eligible to make an application and access all the help that is available.”

The council has set five levels of grants - £25,000, £10,000, £7,500, £5,000 and £2,500 - which will be shared depending on the level of property costs and the impact the coronavirus has had.

To be eligible, businesses must have been trading on March 11 and not been able to access any other Government grant funding, excluding the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme or Self-Employed Income Support Scheme

Businesses that will be prioritised are: small and micro businesses in shared offices or other flexible workspaces, regular market traders who do not have their own business rate assessment, bed and breakfasts which pay council tax instead of business rates, charity properties that receive charitable business rates relief, which would otherwise have been eligible for small business rates relief or rural rate relief, the hospitality, leisure, retail, culture and creative sectors and independently owned manufacturing businesses.

Applications for the grants must be made by midnight on June 14. Once the applications have been received the council will review them.

To apply for the fund visit www.kettering.gov.uk/dg. For further information and guidance on the scheme can be found at www.kettering.gov.uk/dgguide.