Cheshire West and Chester Council has launched its discretionary business grant scheme.

The window to apply online to the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund is open until 1 June.

The new fund, which offers grants of £25,000, £10,000 or up to £10,000, is aimed at small businesses that can demonstrate they have suffered a significant fall in income because of the COVID-19 crisis, have relatively high ongoing fixed property-related costs and occupy property, or part of a property, with a rateable value or annual rent or annual mortgage payments below £51,000.

The fund is mainly intended to address gaps in the original Government scheme.

Businesses must have been trading on 11 March 2020 and not have received any other Government funding.

The Government is asking councils to prioritise the following types of businesses for grants:

• Small businesses in shared offices or other flexible workspaces
• Bed and breakfasts (excluding Airbnb) which pay council tax instead of business rates
• Charity properties that receive charitable business rates relief, which would otherwise have been eligible for small business rates relief or rural rate relief.
• Regular market traders who do not have their own business rate assessment

For full details of the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund and to apply visit the Council's website orCLICK HERE.