A NEW West Devon funding package of £870,000 has been launched to help small businesses who have fallen through the net of financial assistance during the coronavirus outbreak.

But the leader of West Devon Borough Council said this week it was inevitable that some people would be disappointed as they expected applications to exceed the money available.

The Government fund for small and micro businesses being administered by local district councils is available to those businesses that have not been eligible for any other grant, with the exception of the Furloughed Job Retention Scheme and the self?employed income support scheme, and who were trading on March 11 2020.

One of the key criteria for eligibility is businesses who have high ongoing fixed property-related costs and who can show that they have suffered a major fall in income due to the Covid-19 crisis.

Grants will range from £1,000 to £25,000 with all businesses required to meet the same evidence based tests of need. The following business types will be prioritised for funding support, in line with Government requirements:

Small businesses in shared offices or other flexible workspaces.

Regular market traders with fixed building costs, such as rent, who do not have their own business rates assessment;

Bed and breakfasts which pay council tax instead of business rates;

Charity properties in receipt of charitable business rates relief which would otherwise have been eligible for small business rates relief or rural rate relief.

Each local council also has the discretion to extend their grants to business sectors in their area which they feel need additional support in the interim, for instance tourism sectors within Devon. Check West Devon District Council’s website for information on the business types prioritised in your area.

Those not eligible for funding under this scheme include:

Small businesses with a turnover of more than £10.2-million, balance sheet of more than £5.1 million and more than 50 staff.

Micro businesses with a turnover of more than £632,000, balance sheet of more than £316,000 with more than 10 staff

Businesses who were not trading on March 11 2020

Businesses currently in administration or insolvent

Businesses whose property rent, mortgage payments and rateable value is above the threshold of £51,000.

Leader of West Devon Borough Council, Cllr Neil Jory, said: ‘We really welcome this government initiative and shall be ensuring our £870,500 of money gets out quickly to those most in need, who so far have not received any support.

‘It is unfortunate that the funding available is so limited as we anticipate more applications from deserving businesses than the funding will be able to pay out to, which will inevitably lead to disappointment.

‘In addition to the four main business types supported by these grants, West Devon will also look at helping those small tourism, and food and drink hospitality supply chain businesses within the borough.’

If a business believes it fits the criteria stated, they can apply for funding via their council’s website.

Please ensure you have the corresponding supporting documents at hand before you start the application, including bank statement for March this year, latest set of accounts, HMRC self-assessment with a cash flow forecast. You may also need a Tenancy Agreement, if applicable.

The council’s grant teams will be working as quickly as possible to process the claims and cannot respond to each business with individual updates, so they ask businesses to please remain patient and they will get back to you as soon as they can.

Please take care when entering details and especially numbers; incorrect information provided could significantly delay your grant. Please check your bank account details carefully — we will not be able to pay a discretionary grant twice, so if you provide incorrect bank details, you may not receive the grant if we cannot reclaim the original payment.