COVID-19 Kickstart Grant Scheme closed to new applications

The Cornwall & Isles of Scilly (CIOS) Growth Hub announced today (14th October 2020) that applications for the £1.44 million European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funded CIOS Kickstart Grant Scheme have already exceeded the funds available and therefore the scheme will not reopen for new applications.

The funding came from two previously announced Government funds with the allocation and criteria being decided by the Government:

• Kick-starting Tourism Package
  • £10 million of EU funding to boost tourism in England, to help small businesses in tourist destinations to access support of up to £5,000
  • Cornwall & Isles of Scilly allocation: £981,000
• Wider Economy Business Support
  • £20 million of new EU funding to help businesses recover from the effects of Coronavirus.
  • Cornwall & Isles of Scilly allocation: £459,000

The Kickstart Grant scheme opened for applications from local businesses on Wednesday 2nd September and was amongst the first to open of the 38 Growth Hubs in England. It addressed the need to react quickly to help local businesses recover from the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic. For what is a limited fund, there has been unprecedented demand for the Kickstart grants across the country.

As highlighted prior to launch, and to ensure appropriate eligibility checks could be conducted, the scheme accepted the first 250 submitted applications. With over 2000 people on the website, 250 applications were completed within forty minutes.  At the point the scheme closed there were over 350 incomplete applications that were then saved as draft.

The Wider Economy Business Support funding will be fully allocated using the submitted applications, with businesses applying for an average grant of £3,500.

The Kick-starting Tourism Package funding has already been awarded to over 100 applications and, after the remaining submitted applications have been processed, will have approximately £500,000 left to allocate.

Therefore, the first 90 tourism applications in draft to be created on the website on 2nd September will be invited to complete the process.  If there is money still available after these applications have been assessed, the next applications on the list will be invited to complete until the funds are fully allocated.

All applications are assessed against ERDF eligibility of both applicants and the details of the proposed project activity they wish to fund, which is required to help to address the impact of COVID-19 on their business.

The Growth Hub urges local businesses to contact the team to find out about what additional business support might be available by booking a FREE business review.

To find out more about the CIOS Kickstart Grant Scheme visit ciosgrowthhub.com/business-grants. This page contains all the information currently available.

The Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Kickstart Grant Scheme is supported by the England European Regional Development Fund as part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014 to 2020.

Part of Cornwall Development Company, the Cornwall & Isles of Scilly Growth Hub is part-funded by the European Regional Development Fund and match funded by Cornwall Council, the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy and the Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership.

The Growth Hub urges local businesses to contact their team to find out about what additional business support might be available. More information is available on: www.ciosgrowthhub.com