Growth Fund, Social Enterprise Grant Scheme and Exceptional Fund Frequently Asked Questions
This is general programme FAQs. Applicants should also refer to specific fund criteria and guidance ahead of submitting their applications.
Utilising ARG Funding, grants will be available to targeted SME businesses across Telford & Wrekin to help them recover from the ongoing impacts of the Covid-19 pandemic.
There are three funds available are:
In addition to the funds above, business are able to register an interest to seek specialist consultancy support under the:
See individual fund overviews for what the focus of each fund is and associated criteria including specific further FAQs to develop eligible and suitable propositions.
You can apply for a grant of between £2,000 and £10,000. See individual fund for limit.
See individual fund for further guidance.
From Tuesday 21st September at 9am.
Business can apply for grant between £2,000 and £10,000. Grants are to cover 100% of your eligible costs up to the specific fund limit. All quotations and prices must be obtained after 13th September 2021.
For those applicants applying to The Growth Fund and The Social Enterprise Development Fund, once approved, and once an offer letter has been received and signed, the applicant will then need to order and complete the project. Once completed, the business will need to financially complete the project (pay in full) for the work or goods and then claim the money back from the Grant Fund.
A key requirement is that you cannot start your project until a Grant Offer Letter has been received. We cannot fund any incurred expenditure for projects that have already started, or start before a grant offer letter issued.
For administrative purposes all payments for purchases must be paid in full and upfront. We will need to see copies of supplier’s invoices and a copy of the statement from the dedicated bank account for the business, evidencing that payment has been made to the relevant suppliers. The bank statement must correspond with the supplier’s invoice.
We cannot accept payments that have been made by cash, credit cards or any other alternative payment arrangements where payment is staggered and not paid in full.
For those applicants applying to the Exceptional Fund, if successful, applicants will be paid in advance.
Links to the respective application forms can be accessed via the individual fund scheme overview. From Tuesday 21st September at 9:00 am.
When opening the application link, there is an initial eligibility questionnaire that will take you to the full application should your business be eligible.
You will need to have the following information to had when completing the eligibility questionnaire-
As part of the full application you will need to provide details about your business and the project for which you are seeking funding, this includes details of;
You will, as part of the project proposition, need to submit one fully written quotes from suitable suppliers with your application (emailed price from a supplier, pdf of a direct tailored quote) for a maximum of two items.
Quotes must be dated after Monday 13th September 2021.
If you are obtaining a price from a web-site, we will accept screen shots. The screen shot should clearly show the item, its cost, the web address of the supplier and a full date that the screen shot was captured. When capturing the screen shot, please do not crop out the time and date. This is traditionally in the bottom right hand corner for windows PC, or the top left for Apple devices.
The quotes/prices should be dated after Monday 13th September 2021 and stand until 28th February 2022 or until the project is completed.
For administrative purposes all purchases and payments must be made after the offer letter has been issued and accepted by the applicant. The business will then complete purchases which must be paid in full and upfront. We will need to see copies of supplier’s invoices and a copy of the statement from the dedicated bank account for the business, evidencing that payment has been made to the relevant suppliers. The bank statement must correspond with the supplier’s invoice.
We cannot accept payments that have been made by credit cards or any other alternative payment arrangements where payment is staggered and not paid in full.
You can only apply for one grant fund either the Exceptional Fund, the Growth Fund, or the Social Enterprise Development Grant.
If you eligible for more than one fund then applicants should determine which is most suitable and apply to that.
Yes.
Applicant can only apply for 1 grant fund, either the Exceptional Fund OR the Growth Fund OR the Social Enterprise Development Grant AND the Specialist 1-2-2 support.
Due to expected demand we encourage applicants to apply for the grant funding first, then apply for the Specialist 1-2-1 support.
In principle, yes, provided that the businesses are separate legal entities and delivering different activities. They will be judged on their own merit.
As part of the application process, applicants will need to confirm the following before accessing the Full Application:
We cannot accept applications from businesses who operate in the following sectors:
Ensure you have the following information available:
The above outlines the general requirements across all three fund. Please read the fund specific requirements for the full details on what information will need to be provided for each individual fund.
See individual funds.
The Growth Fund cannot be used to:
No. You can use any supplier you want to, so long as they are a business and the service or product is eligible for grant funding and is relevant to the recovery needs of your business. However, you will need to confirm the supplier is independent of you and your business and that there is no conflict of interest.
All expenditure will need to be paid before you can claim your grant.
For administrative purposes all payments for purchases must be paid in full and upfront. We will need to see copies of supplier’s invoices and a copy of the statement from the dedicated bank account for the business, evidencing that payment has been made to the relevant suppliers. The bank statement must correspond with the supplier’s invoice.
We cannot accept payments that have been made by credit cards or any other alternative payment arrangements where payment is staggered and not paid in full.
You will be wholly responsible for ensuring the work you commission is carried out to specification and is of a satisfactory standard. The agreement will be between you and your supplier. We cannot be held responsible for any issues or the quality of the work.
VAT Registered Businesses
You will not be able to claim the VAT element though the Telford Growth and Recovery Fund.
The maximum amount of grant that can be claimed is £10,000. The grant covers the net cost of items for businesses that are VAT registered.
Businesses that are Not VAT Registered
You will be able to claim the VAT if your business is not VAT registered. Therefore, the maximum you will be able to claim is £12,000 consisting of £10,000 plus 20% VAT of £2,000.
Please note you will not be eligible to claim the VAT back from HMRC in the future if it has been paid by the Telford Growth and Recovery Fund.
Checks will be made to ensure the VAT status of applicant businesses; incorrect information may lead to your application being declined.
Yes. As long as you are based in Telford and Wrekin, pay council tax to Telford and Wrekin, and have a unique tax reference you are eligible to apply.
All businesses must have a dedicated business account.
Businesses that have a separate business bank account:
Businesses that use their personal bank account for business transactions:
If you wish to change suppliers you will need to reapply as your application was accepted based on the information you submitted at the time of application. Please note we cannot guarantee that you will be able to submit a new application due to the limited number of applications we can accept.
Should anything change then we will need to re-assess our decision based on the new information.
If you want to change the work for which you have been awarded funding for, you will need to reapply as your application was accepted based on the information you submitted at the time of application. Please note we cannot guarantee that you will be able to submit a new application due to the limited number of applications we can accept.
Should anything change then we will need to re-assess our decision based on the new information.
We anticipate processing the applications and issuing a decision within 20 working days. However, this depends on level of demand and the quality of applications. Therefore processing may take longer. It is critical that businesses supply all the information that is requested.
Successful applications will receive notification in line with specific scheme criteria.
Due to the level of funding for grants available, and the high volume of applications anticipated, there will be no appeal process.
We anticipate that demand for grants will be high, so applications will be processed in order of receipt. An early application does not guarantee a grant approval. If your application is eligible, complete and in order then the application will be progressed, however this does not guarantee that funding will be awarded. If your application is not complete it will not be assessed. If further funding becomes available you will be able to re-submit your application at this stage.
The onus is on the applicant to complete the application correctly, provide the necessary information and demonstrate that it meets the requirements of the Grant scheme. If you have any question you are encouraged to contact us through the support feature on the website: Contact Us
The grant is recoverable from the applicant if it is proved that their application and/or claim contained false or fraudulent information.
The data we collect is for the purposes of the Telford Growth and Recovery Fund which is a business support programme to help SME’s overcome the impacts of COVID-19. The programme requires your data to be added to the Telford and Wrekin Council CRM Database called Evolutive.
We will use the information you supply:
Yes. It should be treated as income. Any tax would be built into the accounting process.
Grant Subsidy Allowance: The EU State aid rules no longer apply to subsidies granted in the UK following the end of the transition period, which ended on 31 December 2020. This does not impact the limited circumstances in which State aid rules still apply under the Withdrawal Agreement, specifically Article 10 of the Northern Ireland Protocol. The United Kingdom remains bound by its international commitments, including subsidy obligations set out in the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (TCA) with the EU. BEIS Guidance for public authorities explaining the subsidies chapter of the TCA, World Trade Organisation rules on subsidies, and other international commitments can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/complying-with-the-uks-international-obligations-on-subsidy-control-guidance-for-public-authorities
The scheme will be offered Small Amounts of Financial Assistance Allowance – this allowance is the equivalent of 325,000 Special Drawing Rights[1], to a single economic actor over any period of three fiscal years and includes any subsidy previously received as de minimis aid or as Small Amounts of Financial Assistance under Article 3.2(4) of the TCA from any subsidy awarding body. As at 2 March 2021 this was the equivalent of £335,000. The Special Drawing Right calculator here can be used to calculate the exchange rate on the day the subsidy is awarded: https://coinmill.com/SDR_calculator.html.