Pendle News Room

“Pendle Council has £26.4 million in government funding to pay businesses grants to enable them to survive,” he explained.

Cash grants of £10,000 and £25,000 are available and Pendle Council wants all businesses which are eligible to apply.

“This financial support will make all the difference in helping our local economy to recover more quickly after lockdown and it will protect local jobs,” he stressed.

“Our staff have been working hard including weekends to complete processing all the business grant applications we’ve had so far, ” said Pendle Council’s Chief Executive, Dean Langton.

And Pendle Council has made business grant payments to Pendle businessess totalling over £15 million.

“It’s vital that Pendle businesses get the financial support they are entitled to,” he said.

So far Pendle Council has received 1,923 grant applications out of an expected total number of around 2,300.

“This is a response rate of 84%,” he stated.

“But it means there are around 380 businesses who haven’t yet applied for a grant to sustain them during this challenging period,” he added.

Pendle Council is stepping up efforts to contact businesses by phone, email, letter, social media and via local business forums and through the local media.

Local businesses who’ve not yet applied can find details of all the schemes available via a dedicated coronavirus business support website www.pendle.gov.uk/coronavirus

There are two types of government grants for businesses which Pendle Council is responsible for paying to those which meet the criteria.  They are: 

•    Small Business Grants of £10,000 for businesses which qualified for Small Business Rate Relief on 11 March 2020

•    Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants of £10,000 for qualifying businesses whose property has a rateable value of no more than £15,000

•    Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants of £25,000. Qualifying businesses with a rateable value of more than £15,000 but less than £51,000 can get a grant of £25,000 per property.

Councillor Iqbal added:

“There is other support flagged up on our website including the government’s job retention scheme to help employers, and support for the self-employed. 

“Employers can now go online to claim cash grants worth up to 80% of wages, capped at £2,500 a month per worker.

“Advice support and links are all in one place via www.pendle.gov.uk/coronavirus and I urge local businesses and self-employed people to make sure they get all the help and financial support they can,” he said.