Chesterfield Borough Council announce discretionary grants for local businesses

Chesterfield Borough Council has been awarded £1.27 million from the Government to provide discretionary grants to local businesses who were not eligible to receive funding from the Small Business Grant or Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Funds.

Councillor Jean Innes, Chesterfield Borough Council’s, cabinet member for Business Transformation and Customers, said: “We have already paid out over £24 million in business support grants to over 2100 Chesterfield businesses to support them during the Covid-19 pandemic and 661 businesses have received business rates relief worth over £18 million.

“Chesterfield Borough Council’s new discretionary scheme will provide the opportunity for more local businesses to receive grant support, particularly those with high property-related costs and who have struggled to trade during the Covid-19 pandemic.”

The new grant scheme opens on Friday 5 June 2020 and closes for applications on 17 June 2020.

Small businesses can apply for grants of up to £25,000, though the council expects that most grant payments will be in the range of £2,500 to £10,000. The following types of businesses are eligible for this new grant:

• Small businesses in shared offices or other flexible workspaces; for example, business/industrial parks and incubator offices which do not have their own business rates assessment
• Regular market traders who do not have their own business rates assessment but have fixed building costs, such as rent
• Bed and Breakfast accommodation providers who are registered as a food business within Chesterfield Borough Council and pay Council Tax instead of Business Rates
• Charities in receipt of charitable business rates relief which would otherwise have been eligible for small business rates relief

To apply for this new grant scheme businesses must:

• Have been the occupier of a property with a trading address in Chesterfield borough used wholly or mainly for business purposes on 11 March 2020
• Employ fewer than 50 people
• Have a rateable value or annual rent or mortgage of below £51,000
• Be able to evidence relatively high ongoing fixed building costs
• Be able to demonstrate that they have had a significant drop in income due to the Covid-19 pandemic and related restrictions
• Be able to demonstrate the business is their sole or primary source of income

In order to apply you will need to download and complete an application form from the Chesterfield Borough Council website and provide the necessary supporting evidence. You will then need to submit it electronically via the council’s secure document management system on their website.

Further information on how to apply, criteria and evidence required is available here: www.chesterfield.gov.uk/your-council/coronavirus-information-hub/businesses-information.aspx#hub_discretionary_grants_local

If you have any further questions about these grants please contact the team by emailing discretionarygrants@chesterfield.gov.uk