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.