A government grant is essentially an incentive package made available by various government bodies and organisations to individuals as well as businesses. Government grants (barring the finance grants) are usually non-repayable.
Depending upon the nature of the grant body and the grant objective, these grants can come in a variety of sizes and formats. As far as small businesses are concerned, such grants range from £1,000 to £500,000. Some of the bigger and more prized grants can go even higher.
Government grants have been there for a long, long time. The names and forms they have taken may have changed over time – from business subsidies to business support – but the objectives haven’t. If you were to analyse government grants across business sectors and districts, two things become very clear:
To put things in a more sweeping perspective, we can say that government grants have three clear objectives:
Even though government grants are incredibly appealing, very few SMEs actually realise the potential of such grants. Here are some features of government grants that SMEs can’t afford to overlook:
Government grants are diverse: Very specific grants are available across all business sectors. This allows SMEs to compete more fairly for similar grants.
Grants are more than just money: As we will discuss in the next part of this post, government grants offer much more than just money.
Winning a grant validates your business idea: A large number of SMEs are stuck in the validation loop that stops them from expanding or trading more confidently. Inadequate funding makes matters even worse. A grant can be a good way to turn the corner in such times and receive external recognition and validation.
While the features associated with government grants are certainly attractive, there exist shortcomings and drawbacks you should be aware of:
The competition is fierce: The competition for government grants is fierce to say the least. Since young businesses, start-ups and established businesses all tend to spill over into the space that’s reserved for SMEs, the competition can become entirely off-putting.
It can take months before you see the money: Applying for a government grant isn’t always the smoothest of processes. It can take many months for the assessment process to conclude, making grants irrelevant for businesses that require urgent funding.
Grants can never replace external funding: Given their limitations in size and scope, government grants cannot replace external, third-party funding channels – not in the long run, anyway.
In 2024, the UK government has introduced several new grants to support various sectors, including energy efficiency, innovation, and farming.
Additionally, the UK government has launched a new digital platform, Find a Grant, which simplifies the process of searching and applying for government grants by offering personalized recommendations and a user-friendly interface (Grants Community).
For more details on eligibility and application processes, you can visit the respective grant pages on the UK government's official websites.
A Start Up Loan is a government-backed personal loan available to individuals looking to start or grow a business in the UK.
In addition to finance, successful applicants receive 12 months of free mentoring and exclusive business offers to help them succeed.
The loan is unsecured, so there’s no need to put forward any assets or guarantors to support an application.
All owners or partners in a business can individually apply for up to £25,000 each, with a maximum of £100,000 available per business.
A good source for help with funding is the Prince’s Trust, which offers development awards to help younger people kickstart their business or access training courses.
At present the Trust offers development awards of up to £500 for UK residents aged between 16 and 30 who are looking for funds to help with training. They must fit the following criteria:
Furthermore, development awards can support:
Development awards can’t support:
Adoption support fund
The adoption support fund (ASF) provides funds to local authorities and regional adoption agencies (RAAs) to pay for essential therapeutic services for eligible adoptive and special guardianship order (SGO) families. The ASF will continue to offer support to adoptive and eligible special guardianship families up to March 2025.hjg
Location England
Funding organisation Department of Education
Who can apply Personal / Individual
How much you can get From £1 to £5000
Total size of grant scheme N/A
Opening date 1 April 2022, 12:00am
Closing date 31 March 2025, 12:00am
Healthy Start
If you’re more than 10 weeks pregnant or have a child under 4, you may be entitled to get help to buy healthy food and milk. If you’re eligible, you’ll be sent a Healthy Start card with money on it that you can use in some UK shops. We’ll add your benefit onto this card every 4 weeks.
Location England, Wales, Northern Ireland
Funding organisation Department for Work and Pension and the NHS
Who can apply Personal / Individual
How much you can get From undefined to undefined
Total size of grant scheme
Opening date 1 April 2022, 12:00am
Closing date 31 March 2025, 12:00am
The Workplace Charging Scheme provides support for organisations towards the cost of installing up to 40 electric vehicle chargepoint sockets at their sites.
The scheme covers up to 75% of the total costs of the purchase and installation of EV chargepoints (including VAT), capped at a maximum of:
It is open to eligible:
There is a separate scheme with a different grant amount for state-funded education institutions.
All chargepoints must be installed by an OZEV authorised installer.
The scheme is available in England, Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. It is not available in the Channel Islands or the Isle of Man.
Funding is confirmed until 31 March 2025.
Electric vehicle infrastructure grant for staff and fleets
The grant provides small and medium-sized businesses money off the cost of installing electric vehicle (EV) chargepoints and supporting infrastructure for their staff and fleet vehicles.
Location National
Funding organisation Office for Zero Emission Vehicles
Who can apply Public Sector, Non-profit, Private Sector
How much you can get From £350 to £30,000
Total size of grant scheme £5 million
Opening date 1 April 2022, 12:01am
Closing date 31 March 2025, 11:59pm
Electric vehicle chargepoint and infrastructure grants for landlords
Grants for landlords to install electric vehicle chargepoints and supporting infrastructure in rental and leasehold properties.
Location National
Funding organisation Office for Zero Emission Vehicles
Who can apply Personal / Individual, Public Sector, Non-profit, Private Sector
How much you can get From £350 to £30,000
Total size of grant scheme £500,000
Opening date 1 April 2022, 12:01am
Closing date 31 March 2025, 11:59pm
Electric vehicle chargepoint grant for renters and flat owners
The grant provides electric vehicle (EV) drivers who are renters or own a flat with support towards the costs of the purchase and installation of EV charge points.
Location National
Funding organisation Office for Zero Emission Vehicles
Who can apply Personal / Individual
How much you can get From £300 to £350
Total size of grant scheme £5 million
Opening date 1 April 2022, 12:01am
Closing date 31 March 2025, 11:59pm
Apply for Funding for Community Projects
Find out information from your Local Authority about community-based funding and grants for projects like activities for young people, volunteer programmes and development of communal facilities.
Location England, Wales
Funding organisation Local Authorities
Who can apply Personal / Individual, Public Sector, Non-profit, Private Sector
How much you can get From Various to Various
Total size of grant scheme Various
Opening date 1 April 2022, 12:00pm
Closing date 31 December 2025, 11:59pm
Fisheries and Seafood Scheme (FaSS)
The Fisheries and Seafood Scheme (FaSS) delivers investment to safeguard the long-term sustainability, resilience and prosperity of the seafood sector across England.
Location England
Funding organisation Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Who can apply Personal / Individual, Public Sector, Non-profit, Private Sector
How much you can get From £500 to £250,000
Total size of grant scheme £20.3 million
Opening date 13 April 2022, 12:01am
Closing date 28 February 2025, 11:59pm
Boiler Upgrade Scheme
The Boiler Upgrade Scheme (BUS) supports the decarbonisation of homes and small non-domestic buildings in England and Wales. The scheme provides upfront capital grants of £5000 or £6000 to encourage property owners to replace existing fossil fuel heating with more efficient, low carbon heating systems including heat pumps and biomass boilers.
Location England, Wales
Funding organisation Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy
Who can apply Personal / Individual, Non-profit, Private Sector
How much you can get From £5,000 to £6,000
Total size of grant scheme £450 million over 3 years
Opening date 23 May 2022, 12:01am
Closing date 31 December 2024, 11:59pm
Tree Health Pilot
The tree health pilot scheme will test different ways of slowing the spread of pests and diseases affecting trees in England. It expands on support already available through the Countryside Stewardship woodland tree health grant.It expands on support already available through the Countryside Stewardship woodland tree health grant.The results of the pilot, which runs from August 2021 to 2024, will help develop the future funding policy for tree health schemes. Around 100 grant agreements will be allocated through a competitive application process.
Location England
Funding organisation Forestry Commission
Who can apply Non-profit, Personal / Individual, Public Sector, Private Sector
How much you can get From £500 to No maximum award as it is dependent on learning objectives
Total size of grant scheme £3 million
Opening date 1 August 2022, 12:01am
Closing date 31 August 2024, 11:59pm
Business Support for Scotland
FindBusinessSupport.gov.scot gives an overview of grants, loans, funding, advice and other support available to businesses in Scotland, offered by over 100 Scottish public sector organisations, conveniently in one place. Information is available for businesses of all sizes and sectors, from start-ups and sole traders to large enterprises and includes support for social enterprises.
Location Scotland
Funding organisation Scottish Government
Who can apply Personal / Individual, Non-profit, Private Sector
How much you can get From Various to Various
Total size of grant scheme Various
Opening date 23 September 2022, 12:01am
Closing date 30 September 2030, 11:59pm
Good Growth Community Capacity Fund
The Community Capacity Fund programme is being managed by Cornwall Council, with a dedicated team available to offer advice and support to potential applicants. All enquires should be directed to this team who can be contacted through: Email: ccf@cornwall.gov.uk Website: Community Capacity Fund https://www.cornwall.gov.uk/business-trading-and-licences/economic-development/community-capacity-fund/ The focus of this programme is to engage with community-based organisations across Cornwall, opening up opportunities for them to get involved in developing projects for their area.
Location South West England
Funding organisation Cornwall Council
Who can apply Personal / Individual, Public Sector, Non-profit, Private Sector
How much you can get From £2,000 to £25,000
Total size of grant scheme £1.23 million
Opening date 1 February 2023, 12:01am
Closing date 1 November 2024, 11:59pm
Local Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Capability Fund
Grant to local authorities to support capacity in delivering local electric vehicle chargepoints.
Location England
Funding organisation Department for Transport
Who can apply Public Sector
How much you can get From £279,000 to £3 million
Total size of grant scheme £45.8 million
Opening date 21 February 2023, 12:01am
Closing date 31 March 2025, 11:59pm
National Highways Lorry Parking Facilities Improvements Scheme
This grant provides lorry parking operators with support to improve HGV driver facilities through the provision of welfare facilities, parking and improved security.
Location England
Funding organisation National Highways
Who can apply Public Sector, Non-profit, Private Sector
How much you can get From £1 to £20 million
Total size of grant scheme £20 million
Opening date 6 March 2023, 12:01am
Closing date 30 March 2025, 11:59pm
Plug-in Van and Truck Grant
The plug-in van grant (PIVG) was launched in 2012 to help bridge the price gap between the cost of ultra-low emission vans and diesel vans. It was extended to trucks, also referred to as heavy goods vehicles (HGVs) in 2016.
Location National
Funding organisation Department for Transport
Who can apply Personal / Individual, Public Sector, Non-profit, Private Sector
How much you can get From £2,500 to £25,000
Total size of grant scheme N/A
Opening date 1 April 2023, 12:01am
Closing date 31 March 2025, 11:59pm
Good Growth Community Levelling Up Programme
This programme puts communities at the heart of delivery. Funding is available to enable locally based projects and skills investments that tackle deprivation and level up communities across Cornwall and Isles of Scilly.
Location South West England
Funding organisation Cornwall Council
Who can apply Personal / Individual, Public Sector, Non-profit, Private Sector
How much you can get From £5,000 to £200,000
Total size of grant scheme £7.6 million
Opening date 27 June 2023, 12:01am
Closing date 1 December 2024, 11:59pm
UK Seafood Fund: Fleet modernisation – engine replacement & engine modifications
This round will trial replacement engines and the modification of engines in commercial fishing vessels, to support the modernisation of the UK fleet.
Location National
Funding organisation Department for Environment, Food & Rural Affairs
Who can apply Personal / Individual, Private Sector
How much you can get From £1 to £160,000
Total size of grant scheme £2 million
Opening date 17 July 2023, 12:01am
Closing date 13 December 2024, 11:59pm
Teacher Mentoring Programme (TMP)
On 28 March 2023, the Department for Education (DfE) announced the next phase of government support for FE teacher mentoring through the Teacher Mentoring Programme. Following a competitive procurement, DfE has signed a two-year contract with Cognition Learning Group for delivery of the programme which will run until 31 March 2025.
Location England
Funding organisation Department for Education
Who can apply Public Sector, Non-profit, Private Sector
How much you can get From £5,000 to £25,000
Total size of grant scheme £3 million
Opening date 31 August 2023, 12:01am
Closing date 30 March 2025, 11:59pm
DHSC Community Automated External Defibrillator (AED) Fund
Organisations across England are being invited to bid for a share of £1 million of government funding to buy life-saving defibrillators for community spaces like town halls, local parks or post offices. The DHSC Community Automated External Defibrillator (CAED) Fund will support provision of 2000 AEDs. These will be distributed across England during 2023-2024, supporting any organisation based in England that is not eligible for the current Department of Education AED programme.
Location England
Funding organisation The Department of Health and Social Care
Who can apply Public Sector, Non-profit, Private Sector
How much you can get From £450 to £1,250
Total size of grant scheme £1 million
Opening date 22 September 2023, 12:01am
Closing date 21 September 2024, 11:59pm
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