There are two capital grant schemes available specifically for rural businesses. Support Packages and Services (contensis.com)
The Rural Business Capital Grant Scheme is offering grants from £1,000 up to a maximum of £10,000 per eligible business for small scale investment in micro and small enterprises in rural areas. Examples of eligible items include, but are not limited to:
Creation, improvement and expansion of rural leisure, hospitality, and tourism businesses
Purchase of equipment for food processing
Modernising existing equipment for increased energy efficiency or increased productivity through automation
Funding for resilience infrastructure and nature-based solutions that protect local businesses.
Diversification projects outside of agriculture (for example, creating rural leisure and tourism facilities)
The Cheshire East Visitor Economy Grant is offering grants from £1,000 up to a maximum of £10,000 per eligible business for the development and promotion (both trade and consumer) of the visitor economy in Cheshire East. The fund is intended to be used to enhance Cheshire East’s rural visitor economy and rural leisure opportunities, including:
Developing local attractions
Trails and visitor infrastructure
Developing visitor experiences
Tours
Tourism products more generally
Eligibility Criteria for both schemes:
Only businesses and organisations trading from a property based in the Cheshire East Council rural classification https://magic.defra.gov.uk can apply for a grant.
Businesses must apply to the Council via an online application form to be considered for a grant payment
Only expenditure that occurs after the 1 April 2023 will be eligible
Businesses must hold a business bank account
Refer to the scheme policy (See attached) for full details of both the Rural Business Capital Grant Scheme and Cheshire East Visitor Economy Grant.
All live grant schemes are supported by the Business Support Hub
All our grant schemes are paid retrospectively once full payment of items can be evidenced.
When making an application to any of our grant schemes above you will be taken to an external website called ‘Grant Approval’. You will need to register with an email address to access the applications. Once registered you will be able to search for the schemes.
Holmes Chapel is classified as being a rural areas for the purposes of this fund.