Stockport Coronavirus Grant Scheme passes £60 million mark

Nearly 5,250 Stockport businesses have each received a share of over £60 million in grant funding as part of the Small Business Rate Relief and Hospitality sector financial support schemes announced by the Government as the UK entered lockdown in response to the coronavirus pandemic.

The Small Business Grant Funding and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF) are designed to help with business costs during coronavirus. Administered by Stockport Council, the business rates team at SMBC have managed to identify and make payments to over 96% of all qualifying businesses across the borough. 

Cllr David Meller, Cabinet Member for Economy and Regeneration, said:

Hitting this landmark amount has involved a tremendous amount of hard work from a host of officers across the council – I would like to thank everyone involved who has made this happen.

“We know how hard this crisis has hit businesses in Stockport, and we will continue to do everything we realistically can to support businesses in our borough.”

Stockport Council launches Phase 4 of the Local Authority Discretionary (LAD) Grant Fund

In response to a number of businesses having been identified as ‘falling through the net’, in May the Government launched the Local Authority Discretionary Grant fund to support small and micro businesses not eligible for other grant schemes. While local authorities have some discretion about how to prioritise this funding they were initially, directed to prioritise businesses such as small businesses in shared offices or other flexible workspaces, regular market traders, bed and breakfasts paying council tax instead of business rates and charity properties getting charitable business rates relief, which are not eligible for small business rates relief or rural rate relief.

Following the release of Phases 1 to 3, Stockport Council have released a further phase which will widen the opportunities for more businesses to apply. Businesses eligible to apply for a grant for support with their monthly fixed property costs in phase 4 are required to be Stockport based small and micro businesses; businesses with relatively high ongoing fixed property-related costs, not based at home, of at least £250 per month; businesses also need to demonstrate that they’ve suffered a significant fall in income due to the coronavirus outbreak and businesses which occupy property, or part of a property, with a rateable value or annual rent or annual mortgage payments below £51,000, or £150,000 if they are hospitality or leisure businesses. Grants awarded will either £2,500, £5,000, £7,500, £10,000 or £25,000 and will be provided to support fixed property costs and not to compensate for loss of income.

In phase 4 there is also an opportunity to apply for a fixed grant of £2,000 for registered businesses based in Stockport who are home based or self-employed that have not had access to any other financial support linked to Covid-19, but who have endured a significant reduction in income due to Covid-19.

Applications will close at midnight on Friday 07/08/2020. The Council is processing applications in phase four on a first come, first served basis, and reserves the right to close the phase four of applications early if the funds are exhausted before the application deadline. Applying for a grant will not guarantee that one is made if the funds have been fully used up for earlier applications.