Businesses which form the foundations of North Yorkshire’s economy are being given the opportunity to benefit from hundreds of thousands of pounds in funding.
A new package of capital grant schemes is opening up £450,000 in funding for small and micro firms across the county.
The fund, administered by North Yorkshire Council through the North Yorkshire UK Shared Prosperity Fund (SPF), is focused on increasing business growth, productivity and resilience. Grants of between £1,000 and £10,000 are available.
Micro businesses, with less than 10 employees, and small firms with less than 50 employees can also access free support beyond the grant through the business advisory teams at the council and the York and North Yorkshire Growth Hub.
Council leader and chair of the SPF Board, Cllr Carl Les, said: “We are delighted to open up this funding stream, which we hope will be accessed by all – sole traders, start-ups, home businesses and social enterprises as well as landlords and people looking to diversify their farm businesses and limited companies.
“We want businesses to think about the simple changes that could create a sustainable difference to the way they work, reach customers, and improve their bottom line for profits. Our ambition is to reach deep into the business community to see a broad range of innovative applications across the different sectors and disciplines and especially welcome first-time applications.”
North Yorkshire’s economy is heavily slanted towards smaller businesses and there is a total of more than 32,700 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises alongside 90 large businesses in the county.
The chair of the SPF Business Thematic Group, Sue Jefferson, added: “The parameters of the grants on offer have been designed by business for business as we want to see the funds accessible to all and overcoming the barriers that small businesses all too often face.
“With over 98 per cent of our local economy being made up of micro and small businesses, the ability to offer a grant programme that also encourages all applicants to take advantage of wider business advice or support, is really important to us.”
Funding for the 2023/24 scheme amounts to £450,000, with feedback and learning from this initiative set to influence the further development of grant pots in the pipeline for 2024/25.
