£100 million additional Scottish Government funding to support as many local businesses as possible
I am pleased that the Scottish Government Cabinet Secretary for the Economy, Fiona Hyslop MSP, has announced an additional £100m fund for small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) and newly self-employed people businesses impacted by COVID-19.
This package includes a £34 million hardship fund for the newly self-employed, a £20 million fund for small and micro enterprises in the creative, tourism and hospitality sectors and £45 million for viable SMEs crucial to the Scottish economy which are vulnerable.
The Scottish Government has committed to ensuring that vital financial support reaches as many businesses as possible, whilst also reflecting that as Scotland has proportionately more small and medium sized enterprises that the rest of the UK, so its approach to business support reflects that.
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not in receipt of business rates relief, will benefit from this additional Scottish Government funding package
The three separate funds, which opened today (Thursday), will be administered by local authorities and Scotland’s enterprise agencies and will begin to pay out grants in early May.
I have included below a link from HIE which gives further details www.FindBusinessSupport.gov.scothttp://www.FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot
The funds which make up the £100 million support package are as follows:
* £34 million Newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund, managed by Local Authorities, will be allocated to the newly self-employed who are ineligible for UK support (as they became self-employed since April 2019) but are facing hardship with £2,000 grants
* £20 million Creative, Tourism & Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund, managed by the Enterprise Agencies with support from Creative Scotland and VisitScotland for small and micro creative, tourism and hospitality companies not in receipt of business rates relief with grants of up to £25K.
* £45 million Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund, managed by the Enterprise Agencies providing bespoke grants and wrap around business support to viable but vulnerable SMEs who are vital to the local or national economic foundations of Scotland
The Scottish Government is also providing £1 million to top up Creative Scotland’s Bridging Bursaries in the not-for-profit sector.’