A MILLION pounds of funding is available to small businesses in North Yorkshire through the Shared Prosperity Fund.

Small and micro businesses can receive £1,000-£10,000 for schemes that increase business growth, productivity and resilience.

The second round of grants, administered by North Yorkshire Council, follows £750,000 being distributed last year.

Selby videographer Alex Brown received £4,300 for new camera equipment, including a drone to expand and upgrade his services.

READ MORE:

Due to this, he secured two commissions from a German international TV news channel, a job he could not have done before as his old camera did not meet the broadcaster’s requirements.

Mr Brown said: “The fact I’ve got a better camera which is Netflix-approved means people will be getting a better product.

“I’ve had two jobs already that I simply wouldn’t have been able to do had I not had the funding, so that’s great.”

Micro businesses with less than 10 employees, and small firms with less than 50 employees can also access free support beyond the grant through the business advisory teams at the council and the York and North Yorkshire Growth Hub.

North Yorkshire’s economy is heavily slanted towards smaller businesses and there are more than 32,700 micro, small and medium-sized enterprises alongside 90 large businesses in the county.

Council leader and the chair of the SPF Board in North Yorkshire, Cllr Carl Les, said: “We are delighted to open this grant scheme once again after seeing such a positive uptake for the first round.

“Hundreds of small businesses applied for funding and accessed support and we hope to work with even more this year – including sole traders, start-ups, home businesses and social enterprises as well as landlords and people looking to diversify their farm businesses and limited companies.

“This time we have allocated an even larger funding pot to the scheme to enable it to be bigger and better, and have used learning from last year to improve the application process. Our ambition is to see a broad range of applications which seek to make long-lasting improvements to our small and medium businesses across the county.”

To aid businesses with their applications, the York and North Yorkshire Growth Hub, with its partners at Enterprise Cube, has organised two webinars on writing a business plan and a cash flow forecast which will take place on May 16 and 17.

The development manager at the York and North Yorkshire Federation of Small Businesses, Carolyn Frank, said: “This scheme has provided a practical way that the local authorities have been able to work together with us and other partners to unlock Government funding and get it directly to businesses in our area, to help them to innovate and grow.

“It is exciting to see the transformations taking place across so many small businesses thanks to the small business grants and other business support. “Small businesses are the mainstay of the economy of York and North Yorkshire and seeing flexible local support designed specifically for their needs and with them in mind has been an exciting step forward thanks to UK SPF.”

The closing date for applications is Friday, July 12.

Find out more and access the grant scheme here: https://www.northyorks.gov.uk/uk-shared-prosperity-fund/capital-grants-small-businesses-and-enterprises