Businesses in Sefton are being urged to apply for grants from a £1.4m fund set up to help them recover from the pandemic – with just one week to go

Businesses across Sefton impacted by the pandemic have less than a week to apply for a grant from the £1.4m allocation set aside for the borough.  

Last month, Liverpool City Region leaders announced that they had secured a further £8.1m in emergency funding to support businesses across all six local authority areas in their recovery from the effects of COVID-19.

The additional funds are to be shared with small or medium-sized businesses, with between 10 and 249 employees, as part of the Trading On Scheme. The window for applications is open until 5pm on Friday, November 12.

Sefton based businesses can find guidance and further details about the application process on the Sefton Council website: https://www.sefton.gov.uk/tradingonscheme 

In a joint statement issued at the launch of the scheme, Liverpool City Region Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram and the leaders of the six boroughs, said: “Throughout the past 18 months, we have worked together to protect our region from the biggest challenge it has faced since the war.

“That collaboration, creativity and hard work resulted in millions of pounds of support that helped sustain thousands of businesses in all parts of our region through the worst of the pandemic.

“More than £44m was distributed to more than 4,000 businesses, saving many more thousands of jobs and livelihoods in the process. We start our recovery from a much stronger position as a result.”

The Government requires each council to exercise its local knowledge and judgment in devising a grant scheme that aligns best with the particular economic characteristics of its area by funding those businesses that have been severely impacted by COVID-19.

Because of this and the limited amount of funding available, the amounts of grant funding for individual businesses will vary across different local authority areas.