Deadline: 31-Jan-22
The Portsmouth City Council’s Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) – Business Resilience Grant Program is now open to support businesses that are still seriously affected by Covid-19.
The grant will help build businesses to withstand current conditions since the country entered Step 4 of the “UK Recovery Roadmap”. The aim is to put in place longer-term improvements and lay the foundations for future growth.
Funding Information
- This is a single discretionary grant payment. Businesses will be able to apply for a grant between £ 1,000 and £ 10,000. This grant can be used to support businesses that aim to:
- build business resilience
- safeguard jobs
- assist growth
- create new products or services, and
- increase productivity
- This is a one-off grant, and no further payments will be made.
- The grant is limited and will be allocated to eligible businesses on a first come first served basis. If the grants fund gets all distributed, then the scheme will close and there will be no extra grants paid.
Eligible Activities
Eligible business activities include, and can be a combination of the following:
- Cost & expenditure occurred in changing, modifying equipment, adapting production lines
- Purchase of equipment to diversify
- Improvements to shopfronts or market stalls or trading unit
- Improvements to internal business premises
- Equipment to aid working from home
- Moving to first commercial property / larger property
- Specific professional consultancy support such as patent, marketing
- Professional and business representative body membership fees
- Workplace health & wellbeing program / workplace risk assessments
- Website development / enhancement
- Training and employee development
- Specific training to assist with importing & exporting activities – how to complete customs declarations; how to manage customs processes and use customs software and systems
Who is this grant for?
Grants are available to businesses that:
- Have their main trading address within the Portsmouth City (postcode area PO1 – PO6) and trading for a minimum of six months prior to application
- Are trading businesses and not in administration or be insolvent or where a striking off notice has been made
- Haven’t already received grant payments that equal the maximum levels under Subsidy Control Framework
- Have continued to be impacted after the country entered Step 4 of the Covid -19 “UK Recovery Roadmap” in the following sectors:
- independent hospitality
- independent retailers (including market traders)
- independent travel agencies and travel related businesses
- independent theaters and cultural venues
- independent live music venues and licensed nightclubs
- independent local suppliers of goods to the hospitality sector
- independent direct suppliers of goods and services to the cruise industry
- independent businesses in the events and conference industry
- independent operators of industrial business centers for SMEs
- independent businesses of musicians, artists and performers
- any of the above that are run as franchise businesses
- The business must not have received an Additional Restrictions Grant from another local authority since November 2020.
Eligibility Criteria
To be eligible businesses must meet the following criteria:
- Business es must not be in administration or be insolvent or where a striking-off notice has been made
- Businesses must not have already received grant payments that equal the maximum levels under the Subsidy Control Framework
- Businesses should not be awarded funding as a wage support mechanism, for capital projects that do not provide direct business support, or to fund projects whereby Local Authorities are the recipients.
For more information, visit https://www.portsmouth.gov.uk/services/coronavirus-covid-19/business-advice-and-grants-coronavirus-information/additional-restrictions-grant/
