Welcome to the latest edition of our South and Vale Business Support newsletter!
South Oxfordshire and Vale of White Horse District Councils’ second round of the Discretionary Grant Fund opened for applications on Monday 29 June at 12pm and will close on Monday 13 July at 12pm.
The Discretionary Grant Fund(DGF) is aimed at businesses that are not eligible to claim the initial government COVID-19 grants linked to rates relief.
The levels of grant funding are as follows:
Micro businesses – £5,000
Small businesses – £10,000
You can apply for a discretionary grant if your business:
Is based in the South Oxfordshire or Vale of White Horse district
Has suffered a significant fall in income due to the COVID-19 crisis
Has relatively high ongoing fixed property-related costs
We recommend reading our eligibility checklist to ensure that you are eligible to apply for the second round of our Discretionary Grant Fund. Read it here.
COVID-19: Firms to receive £1,000 bonuses to hire young people
As part of the Chancellor’s COVID-19 economic recovery plan, companies will be paid £1,000 bonuses by the government to hire young people as trainees.
The government is pledging to provide 30,000 new traineeships to get young people in England back into work. The bonuses form part of an £111 million scheme and will be available for trainees aged 16 to 24. The funding will be capped at 10 jobs per employer, or £10,000.
Employers will be able to determine how to spend the £1,000, as long as it directly or indirectly contributes to training.
“We’re Good To Go” is the official UK mark to signal that a tourism and hospitality business has worked hard to follow Government and industry COVID-19 guidelines and has a process in place to maintain cleanliness and aid social distancing.
Businesses can apply now to confirm they have taken the necessary measures and are operating in line with the Government guidelines and Public Health guidance (relating to English businesses).
Upon successful completion of the application, you will be sent a secure link to download your certificate, mark and a toolkit with practical steps for telling your customers that your business is Good to Go.
Government announces £10 million for small businesses to kickstart tourism
The Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government has announced communities that depend on tourism will receive a major boost from a new £10 million Kick-starting Tourism Package.
This is the latest package of support for economic recovery following the Prime Minister’s announcement of the 'New Deal' earlier this week, which will bring forward £5 billion of capital investment projects, supporting jobs and economic recovery.
The £10 million Kick-starting Tourism Package, will give small businesses in tourist destinations grants of up to £5,000 to help them adapt their businesses following the coronavirus pandemic.
