Decision details

To deliver a £1.8m grants scheme across West and North Yorkshire for small businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. The grants will be between £1k and £3k and the applicants will need to demonstrate how the grant will support their ongoing recovery and resilience. The funding has been awarded by the Ministry for Housing, Communities and Local Government with the condition that it is fully defrayed by the end of the financial year.

For the Combined Authority (CA) to deliver a business grants scheme for small businesses across all of West and North Yorkshire with £1.8m of European Regional Development Funding (ERDF) awarded to the CA by the Ministry for Housing, Communities & Local Government (MHCLG) in September 2020. The grants of between £1k and £3k are to support businesses to recover from the impact of COVID-19 and, in the process, to be more be resilient to future potential business interruption. 

The grants scheme needs to be implemented at pace to meet the needs of businesses across the region and all funding must be fully defrayed by the end of 2020/21. Therefore, the opportunity to undertake detailed consultation has been limited. However, the CA has consulted with Local Authorities in the region and with a number of key business stakeholders, such as Chambers of Commerce, the Federation of Small Businesses and several private sector intermediaries that are members of the LEP’s Professionals’ Perspective Network.

To accept the £1.8m funding from MHCLG and to deliver the grants scheme with the CA as the accountable body.

To agreed to act as accountable body for the funding allocated by MHCLG to North Yorkshire (circa £500k) as well as that allocated to West Yorkshire (circa £1.3m).

The above decisions will allow the CA to provide small businesses across the region with critical grant funding that will support them to build resilience to the ongoing impact of COVID-19 on their operations. For example, meeting the cost of external consultants to advise on health and safety, financial management or human resources, or, to purchase small capital items / technology to mitigate future business interruption and build resilience.