North Yorkshire small business set to benefit from £1 million in grants

The bedrock of the North Yorkshire economy have the chance to benefit from £1 million in funding through a new package of capital grants for business.

Small and micro businesses, which make up 98 per cent of the county’s economy, can apply for the scheme. The scheme is administered by North Yorkshire Council through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

The scheme is focussed on increasing business growth, productivity and resilience and grants of between £1,000 and £10,000 are available.

This is the second round of small business grants, following an incredibly successful first round of this programme. In the last financial year, £750,000 was awarded to businesses across the county.

Expand and upgrade your business

Alex Brown, a videographer based in Selby, was awarded a grant of £4,300 to purchase new camera equipment. This included a drone to expand and upgrade his services.

Thanks to the new equipment, Mr Brown was able to secure two commissions from a German international TV news channel. His old camera did not meet the broadcaster’s requirements.

Mr Brown said: “The fact I’ve got a better camera which is approved by major broadcasters 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. This support comes through the business advisory teams at the council and the York and North Yorkshire Growth Hub.

Another recipient of a grant was Annie Richardson, a sports therapist based in Ampleforth. She used £2,475 to upgrade the plinth she uses when treating clients and purchase a multi-functional fixed resistance weights machine.

Within her business she treats older clients and works with cancer patients to help them before and after surgery. The new plinth is safer and more stable.

Annie said: “The two pieces of equipment together have greatly helped my business and recently I’ve got more referrals from physiotherapists and an abdominal surgeon for a patient of his who was due to undergo treatment for cancer.

“The number of specialist clients I am able to now take on because of it has grown. It has made a huge difference to the clients’ comfort and confidence and my ability to help people with confidence and safety.”

Bigger and better business support

North Yorkshire’s economy is heavily slanted towards smaller businesses. 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, home businesses and social enterprises as well as 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.”

Get help to apply

To aid businesses with their application for grants, the York and North Yorkshire Growth Hub, with its partners at Enterprise Cube, has organised extra support. Webinars on writing a business plan and a cash flow forecast will take place on May 16 and 17.

York and North Yorkshire Federation of Small Businesses development manager, 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 & 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.

Apply for North Yorkshire Business Grants

Find out more and access the grant scheme here.

Further details of the webinars can be found here.

Please note: this scheme is only available to businesses in the North Yorkshire Council area. This does not include businesses in the City of York.

UK Shared Prosperity Fund

The UK Shared Prosperity Fund and the Rural England Prosperity Fund are central pillars of the Government’s levelling up agenda. They provide £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The funds aim to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK. They will do this by investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills. For more information, visit:

UK Shared Prosperity Fund prospectus: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus

Rural England Prosperity Fund prospectus: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/rural-england-prosperity-fund-prospectus

Shared Prosperity in North Yorkshire will enable the people, communities, and businesses across our rural, coastal and urban areas to thrive. North Yorkshire has been allocated £16.9 million to spend on programmes and projects through UK Shared Prosperity Fund. In addition, £5.4 million has been allocated from Rural England Prosperity Fund – a capital programme targeted at rural areas. 

Click here for further information about North Yorkshire Council’s funding programmes.