Council launches more grant funding for new and start-up businesses

Horsham District Council’s Economic Development team reopened access for applications for its Local Enterprise and Apprenticeship Programme (LEAP) small business grants funding on 14 January 2021, targeted at new and start-up businesses in the District.

This, the second tranche of the current LEAP funding pot is open until the end of February 2021 and follows up on a successful first round of funding awards which saw 18 local businesses being awarded individual grants of up to £2,000.

Over 100 small and micro businesses have successfully secured grants throughout the four previous years of this extremely popular programme.

The current LEAP grant scheme has some £58,000 remaining to be distributed to small businesses across the Horsham District between now and end May 2021.

The grant money is being released in three tranches over 2020/21:

The current programme is aimed at small and start-up businesses located in the Horsham District that may have missed out on the various government COVID-19 support programmes.  If you are a new business of less than 12 months, have less than 20 employees, and can submit a 3 year business plan, you can now apply for a share of these grant funds to support your business needs.

You can apply for up to £2,000, which you will need to match with additional funds (30% of the total project cost). You must be able to demonstrate how the project will develop or establish your business and what difference it will make.

Horsham District Council’s Cllr Paul Clarke, Cabinet Member for Local Economy said:

Our focus for this second tranche of LEAP funding is to support people into self-employment in light of the rising levels of unemployment and redundancies as a result of COVID.

“LEAP funding is a great opportunity for businesses who are starting up or have recently set up a new business and have been adversely affected by the pandemic.

“We are hoping as many of the District’s entrepreneurs or businesses as possible will take advantage of this grant scheme, in order to make that important small investment to help them either launch their own business or build the resilience of their existing enterprises which will be so crucial for our local economy going forward.”

Cllr Paul Clarke, Cabinet Member for Local Economy

Commenting on the benefits of a 2020 LEAP funding award, Ian Newbold Director of Henfield based Newboldology said:

“‘Receiving the LEAP funding grant was essential for our business in 2020. The funding helped us increase our marketing presence in local community publications and enabled us to rebuild of our website.

“As local small businesses emerged from the impact of lockdown through the summer of 2020 and started to focus on growth plans our continued marketing presence had a positive impact on our business and supported vital growth for our second year of trading.

Applying was very straightforward and the team at Horsham District Council were great is guiding us through every step of the process.

Ian Newbold, Director of Henfield based Newboldology

Nikki Osborne owner of Horsham based Responsible Research in Practice added:

“At the beginning of the pandemic I was lucky enough to receive a LEAP funding grant to help me buy a licence for online webinar software. My business specialises in the delivery of professional in-house education and training. Before the pandemic our bespoke in-house training sessions were delivered face to face which meant that when the pandemic hit, the business faced an uncertain future.

Now, thanks to the LEAP funding all our training sessions are being delivered as live interactive webinar sessions online and our reputation and audiences around the world are growing.

Nikki Osborne, owner of Horsham based Responsible Research in Practice

You can apply for funds from 14 January from our web-page: Business funding

For more information on the scheme, you can watch our promotional film:

Alternatively, contact the Council’s Economic Development team on business.development@horsham.gov.uk .

For media queries please email press@horsham.gov.uk .