Harborough rural businesses could be entitled to £20,000 grant

Harborough businesses could be entitled to a grant of up to £20,000.

Businesses in the district are being encouraged to apply for grant funding through the Harborough Rural Grant Scheme. It provides capital grants of between £5,000 and £20,000 to rural businesses to help them diversify, innovate and grow.

The scheme covers themes of farm business diversification, innovate and grow, green technology and rural tourism.

The Kings Head in Smeeton received a grant last year to help transform its space.

Edward Brown, of the pub, said: “Being awarded a grant has helped the business grow. It has allowed us to completely transform an underused, environmentally inefficient space, into a flexible room that provides additional seating for events, meals and a cafe. This, we hope, will allow us to provide a better level of service to the community.

“The pub stopped serving food nearly five years ago, so being able to provide appropriate space, whether in a cafe capacity, or otherwise, is a big step forward for us. So far, in under a month, we have hosted three fully booked food events in the space and hope to open the cafe around Easter time. To have been able to achieve this in our first year of trading would not have been possible without this support.”

The grants are being managed and distributed by Harborough District Council using government funding of £230,000 through the Rural England Prosperity Fund as part of the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

The fund is part of government’s Levelling Up agenda and aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills.

Harborough District Council deputy leader Cllr Galton said: “Building on the success of the scheme last year, we are delighted to use funding from the Rural England Prosperity Fund to support rural businesses in the Harborough district with growth and development. We want rural businesses to do well so I encourage them to go online and apply.”

Applications are now open and close on Friday September 27. 2024.

Visit www.harborough.gov.uk/rural-grants for more details or email [email protected] for application queries.