Derby City Council is inviting applications for a new ‘top up’ grant scheme to support small businesses and charities struggling to meet their on-going fixed property related costs during COVID-19.

The scheme will be open between 29th May and 19th June and businesses will have 21 days to apply.

The grant is aimed at those who have not been eligible for any other Derby City Council COVID-19 grant related schemes, examples of which may include small businesses operating in a shared workspace, bed and breakfast businesses that pay Council Tax and local charities that have their offices within the city.

The Council has received an additional £2.2million in funding from Government to support the scheme and expects the grants to reflect the level of support needed. For eligible businesses, an award of up to 3 months pro-rata fixed property costs will be available, up to a maximum of £10,000 total grant. Businesses will be required to upload evidence of their fixed property costs for the months of February, March and April 2020, to support their claim.

All businesses applying for the grant will need to meet the following criteria set out by the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

  • Businesses that have a business property which has fixed ongoing costs (primarily rent/mortgage, service charge, business rates, property insurance and utilities).
  • Businesses can show that COVID-19 has had a significant negative effect on their income
  • Must be a micro/small business as defined by the Company Act 2006
  • Businesses that were trading on 11th March 2020

To apply for the new scheme, complete the application at MyAccount portal where businesses are asked to confirm they meet set criteria and also provide supporting documentation in order to streamline the decision-making process.

Cllr Nicola Roulstone, Cabinet Member for Finance and Procurement said:

We know that many businesses have been heavily impacted by the current pandemic and we want to help as many small businesses as we can with this fund. In order to be fair to everyone we are also not doing this on a first come first served basis, as we did with the previous grants, but opening up a window for applications so we can assess them all side by side. Please get your application in by the closing date of 19th June.