New £5m fund to support Start Up’s impacted by coronavirus outbreak goes live today

A £5m fund to support new businesses in Wales dealing with the severe impact of Coronavirus has gone live today. 

It will support start-up firms, which fall outside the UK Government’s Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS) as they only began trading in 2019.

The grant will support up to 2,000 businesses in Wales, with £2,500 each.

This will provide crucial funding to people who established their businesses between 1 April 2019 and 1 March 2020, helping them to continue trading through the pandemic.

To be eligible for the start-up grant, businesses must:

• have not received funding from the Welsh Government’s Economic Resilience Fund or the non-domestic rates grant
• have been set up between the 1 April 2019 and 1 March 2020 and have not qualified for the UK Government’s Self Employment Income Support Scheme
• have less than £50,000 turnover
• have experienced a drop in turnover of more than 50% between April and June 2020.

Applicants will need to submit a two-page application form and self-declaration supported by evidence.

The grant will be administered by local authorities and businesses can check their eligibility by visiting: Flintshire.gov.uk/Business

Applications for the start-up grant and the second phase of the Economic Resilience Fund open from 29 June.

Economy Minister Ken Skates said:

[The grant] will be crucial in supporting new businesses, reducing the risk of firms having to close and people becoming unemployed.

Our Economic Resilience Fund has already supported thousands of businesses across Wales to plug the gaps left by the UK Government’s package of support and the start-up grant complements this work.

The second phase of the Economic Resilience Fund will open for applications on Monday providing more opportunities for microbusinesses, SMEs and large businesses to apply for funding.

Submissions for the start-up grant can also be made from Monday and I’d like to thank local authorities, which will be administering this scheme.

As a government, we continue to work hard to respond to the needs of business at this incredibly testing time.