Discretionary Business Fund opens to help Moray businesses hit by Covid-19

A NEW fund has opened to help shore up Moray businesses hit by Covid-19 restrictions since October last year.

A one-off payment of £2000 is available through the Discretionary Business Fund to help eligible firms cope with short-term financial challenges.

Moray Council is offering support to specific local groups, sectors or businesses who have not been able to receive any other recent funding and are unlikely to benefit from any planned future funding schemes.

The fund will be issued on a "first come, first served" basis and will close once the allocated budget is spent.

The council's head of development services, Jim Grant, said: "We know there are some businesses who have not been able to access existing grants and who need this support, so we’re keen to ensure this funding is passed on as quickly as possible.

"To make sure the process is smooth, we’d encourage anyone applying to make sure all documentation is correct in the first instance and we’ll do our level best to make the payment as soon as we can."

Processing of applications will begin on February 15.

To be eligible, businesses must have been trading before March 23 last year; be based in Moray and have fewer than 50 FTE employees; have a valid VAT, PAYE, Companies House registration, SCIO, CIC or UTR number; not be eligible for any Covid-19 funding since October 2020; must normally have an annual turnover of more than £3,000 before March last year; should not have received an enforcement notice as a result of breaching Covid-19 regulations; should not be in administration, insolvency or have received notice to be struck off Companies House; and be able to show a 30 per cent negative financial impact from Covid-19 restrictions.

Completed application forms and all supporting documents should be sent to dbfund@moray.gov.uk.

Applicants are asked to not send hard copies or emails to any of the other business support funds.