As you may know the Scottish Government this month announced further support for businesses facing closure due to the current lock down, many of these grants however are geared towards businesses within the retail, hospitality & leisure industries.

However, we just wanted to make you aware of an update which has been posted onto the Falkirk Council website with details of a new Business Adaption Fund and a Business Resilience Fund.

The Business Adaption Fund essentially offers support for businesses that will have to incur significant additional costs to re-open their business and to keep the public safe through the COVID-19 pandemic, examples given are the purchase of screens or PPE etc.

The second fund, the Business Resilience Fund, provides financial assistance to help businesses meet their new business objectives. It can support plant, equipment and machinery expenditure (including IT), property expansion or improvements, exhibiting at a national trade show or the costs of developing innovative products or processes. The fund can provide up to 50% of eligible costs, up to a maximum contribution of £10,000.

With both funds unfortunately you can only claim for new expenditure, and not items already purchased to date.

Unfortunately there are no further details on these two funds on the Scottish Government or other council websites as of yet, so we don’t have much more information on how successful any applications might be.   Falkirk council have confirmed that these funds are open to all industries as long as you have a lease in place within the Falkirk area.

Applications are now open, and further details can be found using the following link:

https://www.falkirk.gov.uk/covid19/business-grants.aspx?fbclid=IwAR2ZNSKUkhaDafDlOhLVCGHUpu0byXK6wUdr_XZrQywEFJiLd70N98SRLd0#strategicframeworkbusinessfund

If you have any question’s then please do not hesitate to get in touch with your usual Drummond Laurie contact or call us on 01324 441250