Coventry & Warwickshire Specialist Grants
About this good practice
As a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic and its implications on local businesses, key stakeholders in the Coventry & Warwickshire business support ecosystem came together and invested the leftover ERDF money (part of the European Structural and Investment Funds Growth Programme 2014-2020).
They jointly decided to provide grants between £1,000 and £3,000 to businesses to help them make necessary innovations or modernise practices to safeguard their longer-term competitiveness following the Coronavirus pandemic. A maximum of £5,000 was also available in exceptional circumstances.
The money was a 100% government grant with no obligation for businesses to contribute financially and could be used to pay for the following activities:
• Access to specialist professional advice, e.g. human resources, accountants, legal, financial, IT / digital, etc.
• Purchase of minor equipment to adapt or adopt new technology in order to continue delivering business activity or diversify.
The grants were available for SMEs based within the Coventry & Warwickshire area, able to evidence at least 1 year trading history and negatively affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
Resources needed
The funds came from the ERDF programme 2014-2020. The Coventry & Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Hub alongside Coventry City Council administered the funding aimed at supporting Coventry and Warwickshire businesses. Coventry & Warwickshire was allocated £500,000.
Evidence of success
A total of 200 SMEs were supported.
£200,000 were allocated to tourism businesses, while, due to the nature of businesses in the Coventry and Warwickshire area, a significant proportion of the £300,000 targeting multiple sectors, was allocated to transport sector companies or businesses supplying the sector in some way.
Potential for learning or transfer
Building on the success of these specialist grants, Coventry City Council managed to secure almost £700,000 of Government funding through the Community Renewal Fund. This has the aim to deliver a pilot project offering an integrated package of business, skills and employment support to further develop cultural sectors in Coventry (creatives, tourism, hospitality and events), building on the unique opportunities presented by Coventry’s status as UK City of Culture 2021.
The support model includes sector-specialist 1:1 support, seminars and events for businesses to tackle barriers to innovation and diversification, through specialist grants of up to £5,000 and skills grants of up to £2,000 to support workforce development. The scheme is already seeing high demand from businesses in the target sectors and will create the conditions for Coventry businesses in these sectors to become more competitive and resilient longer-term, whilst also creating new employment and training opportunities.
Good practice owner
Coventry & Warwickshire Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Hub