BBF criteria have been devised to reflect feedback received through the Covid-19 Business Survey recently conducted by the council and to ensure the optimum economic impact.
The BBF focusses on providing grant funding as a contribution towards specific projects or investments being undertaken by applicants in direct response to Covid-19 and is not geared towards addressing working capital requirements or day-to-day cashflow issues.
BBF grants will provide 100% of eligible project costs (excluding VAT), up to a maximum grant award of £2,500 with one application per business.
Eligibility criteria
To be eligible, your business must be able to meet all of the following criteria:
- The business is based in North Lanarkshire. Please note - applications from home-based businesses will only be considered in exceptional cases.
- The business is a micro, small or medium-sized enterprise (up to 250 employees).
- The business has been trading as of 17 March 2020 and can evidence you were actively trading as of 7 June 2021.
- The business can clearly evidence a significant loss of income as a result of COVID-19 restrictions and demonstrate why external financial assistance from North Lanarkshire Council is essential.
- The business is viable and can provide evidence to validate this as part of the application.
- The business has not incurred any project-related expenditure until after a formal decision on the grant application has been received.
- The business owns the business premises or has more than 12 months remaining on a commercial lease at the date of application. Home-based businesses must be trading (not incorporated) for more than 12 months and will only be considered for support in exceptional cases.
- The business is not connected to a tax haven, as set out in the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No. 2) Act 2020.
Not be:
- Connected to a tax haven, as set out in the Coronavirus (Scotland) (No 2) Act 2020.
- In receipt of an enforcement notice as a result of breaching COVID-19 Regulations.
Supporting Evidence
You will need to provide the following evidence to support your application:
- Evidence of Incorporation - any one of the following:
- Company (inc. SCIO): Certificate of Incorporation or Companies House registration number.
- Partnership: Partnership agreement or HMRC registration.
- Sole Trader Self Employed and Freelancers: HMRC registration, Self-assessment documents or valid business insurance document.
- Community Interest Company: Certificate of Incorporation
- Trust: Constitution documents, HMRC registration or VAT registration document.
- Evidence of Business bank statements dated within three months of the application clearly showing the name, address, sort code and account number. If you do not have a business bank account, we will only accept personal bank accounts where they clearly show business transactions.
- Evidence of lost income. This could be in the form of a recent profit and loss account, management accounts, cash flow statements, invoices and receipts, details of contracts lost, cancelled booking diaries/work schedules, cancelled sales/orders, cancelled customer bookings due to COVID-19 restrictions.
- Evidence of ownership/commercial lease. This could be a copy of i) premises lease summary or ii) e-mail from landlord confirming duration of tenancy agreement, or iii) proof of ownership.
- Evidence of projected project costs. This should include formal supplier quote(s) for all eligible items/works seeking grant support.
- Evidence of a project plan. In your own words, provide a summary of the project and detail how the Back to Business funding will help your businesses address specific, immediate priorities in direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic, thereby enabling the business to adapt or modify their premises or operating model in order to address new challenges in their trading environment.