Lincolnshire small business grant scheme closed to applicants after just hours

The government announced £20 million in new funding to help small businesses recover from the impact of Covid-19 by offering grants of between £1,000 and £3,000 to support them with recovery projects, including for use on new equipment and technology or to access specialist advice.

Business Lincolnshire, which was set up to help Greater Lincolnshire based businesses to start and grow, has been administering the scheme in the county.

In order to provide a fair process for all businesses, the window for expressions of interest was opened at 9am yesterday (Thursday) precisely. Within one hour of being open over 400 expressions of interest were received.

A statement from Business Lincolnshire was then posted on its website saying interest in this grant has been extremely high since its announcement by central government, and it was therefore expected that demand would be significantly higher than the amount of grant available.

They added: “This number (400 expressions of interest) alone would significantly exceed the total value of grants available, even if only a proportion of them submitted a full application. The decision has therefore been made to close the grant for applications.”

They added: “It is expected that with the volume of applications already received, once these applications have been processed there will be no further funding available. However, if this is not the case an additional window for expressions of interest will be opened, and businesses will be notified through our communications channels.”

To find out more about funding and eligibility, visit their funding page.