Support extended for businesses in County Durham

This week, Durham County Council announced plans to widen the scope of its local ‘Discretionary Grants Fund’.

The Labour-led authority is making the changes to ensure that as much of the £5million funding pot provided by the Government is allocated before the scheme closes on Friday, August 28.

Up until now, the funding had been focused on firms in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors with priority support for small businesses in shared offices or other flexible workspaces, regular market traders with fixed building costs, B&Bs paying council tax instead of business rates and charity properties in receipt of charitable business rates relief.

Other priority areas included private nurseries, small manufacturing businesses with retail outlets within the property which sell to the public and firms involved in the supply chain to the retail, hospitality and leisure industries.

The scheme has now been extended to include any local, small or micro business operating from a recognised rated business rate premises with a rateable value of less than £51,000.

Businesses in the science and technology sector which occupy office or other flexible workspace with equivalent rent or property costs of £51,000 will also be able to apply.

The council is planning to contact businesses it believes will be eligible and will encourage them to make an application for financial aid – with each firm entitled to claim one grant.

Cllr Carl Marshall, cabinet member for economic regeneration, said: “The county’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic is very much dependent on the survival of our business community.

“It is vitally important that we do all we can to help them through this financially difficult time.

“We have carefully considered how to extend the scheme and open it up to support local businesses with the resources we have.

“We know there are many businesses that desperately need support but there is only limited funding available and we are determined to spend all of it if we can.

“We were recognised at a national level for our success towards the beginning of the pandemic in quickly and efficiently passing on funding that has provided a lifeline to many County Durham businesses.

“This was a result of our very proactive approach in contacting businesses to ensure they were aware of the support available and helping them to access it.

“We will once again be taking this approach as we are extremely keen to make sure as much of the funding as possible is allocated.”

At July’s meeting of the council’s Economy and Enterprise Overview and Scrutiny Committee, Liberal Democrat opposition councillor, Mark Wilkes, raised concerns about the Discretionary Grants Fund.

This included the scheme being underspent by around 50% in County Durham with fears many businesses were not getting the help that they needed.

Cllr Wilkes, reacting to this week’s council decision, said: “I’m delighted to see that the council has taken onboard many of these concerns and now extended the scheme.

“This will help a lot of local businesses, including many children’s nurseries which were not getting any help – something we specifically raised concerns about.”

Fellow Lib Dem councillor, Craig Martin, added there were still concerns about businesses with a rateable value of more than £51,000.

He said: “Given the fast timescales, we urge the council to further adapt the scheme to help those businesses too, if any funding is left over.”

In July, the Government announced that its Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF), Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF) and Local Discretionary Grants Funds, which were all set up to support businesses during the pandemic, will close on Friday, August 28.

As a result, all money made available to County Durham must be allocated by this date and any funding that is not claimed will be lost.

In order to ensure paperwork can be processed and money paid before the cutoff date, the council will not be able to accept applications received after Sunday, August 16.

Durham County Council has already issued almost all the funding it is responsible for allocating through the SBGF and RHLGF, with 8,791 businesses receiving a share of more than £98million.

It has also allocated 54% of the cash it has available through the Discretionary Grants Fund, which was introduced at a later date, with more than £2.6million being distributed among 407 businesses to date.

Some additional eligibility criteria will apply to the extended scheme with the council working to ensure that as many businesses as possible receive a share of the funding.

For more information, visit www.durham.gov.uk/ladgfund

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