Published on Friday 17 July 2020
Local business owners in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole are being invited to apply for the second phase of the council’s Local Discretionary Grant scheme, with eligibility criteria now extended.
The council has already implemented the first phase of funding. This attracted more than 800 applications and awarded over £2m to local businesses from the available £4.3m Local Discretionary Grant fund.
The secondary application window will be open from Friday 17 July to Sunday 2 August. To be considered eligible, businesses must have been trading on or before 11 March 2020 and not received any other grant support so far.
The wider criteria will now cover businesses who trade from a residential premises and businesses that can demonstrate a significant fall in income because of COVID19 (the restriction of 50% or more has been removed).
In addition, phase two will be open to businesses with fixed property costs and a Rateable Value below £100,000 that are still unable to open from 25 July due to government rules. Previously this was only applicable to those with a Rateable Value below £51,000.
Businesses who previously applied for this scheme but did not meet the criteria in the first phase may now be eligible. These applications will be automatically reviewed and considered in phase 2.
Councillor Vikki Slade, Leader of BCP Council, said:
"We’re pleased to be expanding the criteria and opening up grant awards to businesses who previously did not qualify or sat outside of the priorities set by government.
"If you missed out on the first phase, please check the criteria online and apply as soon as possible. I would also like to ask that you supply as much evidence as possible to ensure we can process your application as quickly as possible once this second window closes.’’
Additional Information
The expanded criteria will now include businesses which:
- conduct their business and provide services from a domestic premises
- businesses who conduct their businesses/provide their service from a domestic premises and are visited by customers.
A distinction will be made when considering grant allocation.
All applications will be reviewed and payment made as soon as possible after the closing date.