Please see below link and details for the newly announced Economic Resilience Fund 3, Welsh Government Funding for businesses. This relates to the Economic Resilience Fund
Business Development Grants portion of ERF 3 (£80m). The detail/eligibility on the remaining £60m of ERF 3, the Local Lockdown Business Fund that will support businesses impacted by local restrictions, has yet to be released.
Link: https://fundchecker.businesswales.gov.wales/erfphase3
Some key points from our first pass of the detail available:
- The Welsh Government considers businesses and organisations eligible for this grant even if they have received funding from ERF Phase 1 or 2 or the Non Domestic Rates Grant.
- The grant fund will be open for applications from the week commencing 26 October 2020 and remain open for four weeks. The funding is to cover the period from October 2020 to 31st March 2021
- Grants are targeted at projects which improve and develop a business. Top level project types would include – Supporting the costs of your staff and operation to work on the future development of your business – Investing in the digital capability of your business – Investing in new processes or systems – Investing in equipment – Investing in the skills and capabilities of your staff – Investing in improvements to facilities.
- The grant funding is for revenue expenditure. This means that expenditure which appears in the Profit & Loss Account of a business for the period and not the Balance Sheet. Capital expenditure (which would appear on the balance sheet) can be used as match funding.
- It appears that the grants can not be used for – Funding operational running costs (utilities, rent etc.) unless directly associated to the development project, pay off existing debt, any purchases made before an award of the grant application or redundancy costs.
- Micro businesses (employing between 1 and 9 people) will be able to apply for up to £10,000 on the condition they match this with their own investment of at least 10%; For Tourism and Hospitality micro businesses there will be discretion for grant awards of up to 100%
- SMEs (employing between 10 and 249 people) will be able to apply for up to £150,000. Small businesses (up to 50 employees) will be required to match this with their own investment of at least 10% and medium businesses (between 50 and 249 employees) with at least 20% of their own funding; For Tourism and Hospitality SME’s there will be discretion for grant awards of up to 100%;
- Large businesses (employing 250+ people) will be able to apply for up to £200,000 on the condition they match this with their own investment of at least 50%.
Some illustrative ‘real life’ examples of projects that would be covered – https://businesswales.gov.wales/erf-phase-3-investment-examples
Eligibility details from the Business Wales website attached.
