£3.4m allocated to Staffordshire businesses

A unique partnership to help the Staffordshire economy to survive and thrive during and after the pandemic has so far allocated over £3.4m to nearly 1,000 small and medium-sized business across Staffordshire.

Set up by Staffordshire County Council, the Staffordshire Means Back to Business scheme brings together funding and resources available from all the county 's borough and district councils to help more businesses with support quicker than ever before.

It means that an extra £3.4m of help and support has been allocated to Staffordshire businesses over the last two years than was originally available from central government.

The scheme brings together Covid-19 business relief grants from district and borough councils with additional funding from the county council.

Now almost 4,000 entrepreneurs, employees and potential business owners have benefited from growth grants, interest-free loans, fully funded business advice, training and finance to upskill their staff and take on apprentices.

The scheme has seen over £390,000 allocated in grants to support businesses to survive and grow, over £1.6 million to support over 400 new apprentices and over £550,000 to support almost 2,500 employees with fully funded training for the skills they need now and into the future.

Thanks to its success, the county council was allocated an additional £726,000 from the UK Government 's UK Community Renewal Fund to continue the scheme 's apprenticeship, start-up loans and start-up support schemes.

Philip White (pictured), Staffordshire County Council 's deputy leader and cabinet member for economy and skills, said: “The Staffordshire Means Back to Business scheme is unique in the UK and has made a very real impact. When lockdown struck and at least half of the economy shut down overnight, we knew that we needed to do more and fast to support local businesses.

“While the pandemic was devastating and sadly some businesses were lost, this additional funding has helped many businesses with what during such an uncertain time, and even grow and change to be more robust for the challenges of the future. ”

Although the vast majority of the funding has been allocated, any business less than two years old can apply for an interest free start-up loan of up to £5,000.