Grants/Funding

New lockdown grants to support businesses announced (5 Jan)

The Chancellor of the Exchequer has announced today (5 January) that businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors are to receive a one-off grant worth up to £9,000 as a result of the new lockdown measures.  The one-off top-ups will be granted to closed businesses as follows:

• £4,000 for businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or under
• £6,000 for businesses with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000
• £9,000 for businesses with a rateable value of over £51,000

For further information please visit this page. 

Calculate your BPS payment reductions with the ADHB online tool

The AHDB Direct Payments Calculator tool can be used to view how BPS payment reductions in England, that are due to start in 2021, will impact your farm business. Simply enter your 2019 BPS payment amount and the calculator will display how reductions are likely to look compared to the relative total amount of BPS your business received in 2019. The calculator currently only considers the BPS payment in its current form.  Access the calculator here.

New grants for businesses forced to closed during November lockdown

The Government has announced the provision of Local Restrictions Support Grants to assist businesses that have been mandated to close from 5th November 2020 to manage the spread of coronavirus.    For those businesses that are closed and have a current business rates account the amount of the funding is based on the property rateable value.  Visit this page for full details of how to apply.

Improved Woodland Creation Planning Grant

The Forestry Commission has listened to your feedback and launched an improved Woodland Creation Planning Grant scheme.

Improvements include a reduction to the minimum application and block size, as well as removal of the requirement for 70% of the species proposed for planting to achieve minimum growth rates. Additional changes have streamlined parts of the process and reduced duplication with regulatory processes. These enhancements to the grant will support a broader range of woodland creation and enable more landowners, farmers, land managers and public bodies to develop their plans.  For full details of the scheme please visit this page.

Green Home Grants for homeowners, landlords and tradespeople

Make your home warmer and your energy bills cheaper with a Green Homes Grant.   Homeowners in England, including landlords, can get up to £5,000 to pay part of the cost of energy saving measures like insulation.  If you’re a tradesperson, make sure you’re eligible to carry out work under the scheme, which will support thousands of green jobs.  Tradespeople and businesses that are appropriately certified to install energy efficiency and/or low carbon heating improvements in homes need to register with TrustMark to carry out work under the scheme. This confirms to homeowners that you will install measures to high standards.

Vouchers must be used to install at least one primary home insulation or low carbon heating measure.  If you choose to install at least one of the primary measures, you can use your voucher to help cover the cost of secondary measures.  The grant for the secondary measure is capped at the value of the grant  provided for the primary measures.   For full details on the scheme please visit this page.

Post-furlough support for businesses and the self-employed – the main points

The main points of the Chancellor’s post-furlough support for businesses, announced on 24 September, are:

Job Support Scheme
The government will subsidise the pay of employees who are working fewer than normal hours due to lower demand
Workers must work at least a third of their normal hours and employers will pay staff for the hours they work
The government and the employer will pay a third each for the hours they can’t work
The grant will be capped at £697.92 per month
All small and medium sized businesses will be eligible for the scheme and larger business will be eligible if their turnover has fallen during the crisis
The scheme will run for six months starting in November and replaces the furlough scheme

Business loans
Bounce Back Loans will be extended from six years to ten years
Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme lenders will be able to extend the length of loans from six years to ten years
Businesses struggling can choose to make interest only payments for six months or apply to suspend repayments altogether for six months

Taxes
The 15% emergency VAT cut for the tourism and hospitality industries will be extended to 31 March 2021
Businesses who deferred their VAT bills will be able to pay back their taxes in 11 smaller interest-free instalments

Support for the self-employed
The Self Employment Income Support Scheme Grant will cover 20% of average monthly profits up to a total of £1,875 for the period from November to the end of January 2021
A further grant may be available to cover February 2021 to the end of April, depending on circumstances
Self-assessment income taxpayers can apply to be given more time to pay their tax due

Coventry and Warwickshire Green Business Programme

Do you want to save money on your energy bills and the make the most of low carbon opportunities?  The Green Business programme can help you identify energy savings and support the development of new low carbon products and technologies.   For further information visit this page.

Coventry and Warwickshire Innovation Programme

Supporting the development of new innovative products and technologies for SMEs, the programme provides a range of assistance including one-to-one support, networking and access to grants of up to £100,000.  Visit this page for further information.

Coventry and Warwickshire Business Support Programme

A free service comprising one-to-one or group support targeted at new businesses, or established businesses with under 250 employees who want to grow.   Visit this page for further information.

Gigabit Voucher Scheme for small and medium sized businesses

If you are a small or medium-sized business, you may be able to get a grant of up to £3,000 to upgrade your business broadband to a Gigabit capable connection.   Details of approved suppliers can be found at the link below.

HS2 Woodland Fund

You can apply for funding to support native woodland creation or the restoration of Plantations on Ancient Woodland Sites (PAWS) within a 25-mile zone surrounding the HS2 route – currently in Phase One, from London to the West Midlands.

See the HS2WF map (PDF, 239KB, 1 page)

The HS2 Woodland Fund (HS2WF) opened on a ‘first come, first served’ basis in February 2018, with an initial budget of £1 million. A further £4 million budget is now available to be allocated to projects until 2022/23.  The fund is open year round, but applications are assessed 4 times per year. View the assessment deadlines for 2020 – 2021.  The next closing date is 27 November 2020 for winter 2021/22 planting.

Updates to digital maps

The RPA is currently updating digital maps and will use this latest mapping data when calculating BPS 2017 payments. Claimants of Environmental / Countryside Stewardship and Forestry Legacy Schemes may need to review the changes to make sure their applications and/ or agreements are correct.

CFE advises voluntary maintenance of expiring environmental schemes

The Campaign for the Farmed Environment is encouraging farmers who are in Environmental Stewardship schemes to voluntarily maintain conservation work when the scheme has expired. Voluntary management may assist such farmers to benefit from any future schemes, post Brexit, and returning such land to production will undo the investment of time and money already made, says CFE.