Who can apply?

  • Applicants can be sole traders, businesses, charities and community interest companies (firms) operating from a property in Swindon.
  • Firms must have been trading on the 11th March 2020.
  • Firms must have fixed property costs, which can include mortgage, rental costs, business rate payments and site fees totalling between £2,400 and £102,000 (excluding VAT).
  • If operating from a business property, the rateable value assessment (can be found here https://bit.ly/3e7WQ7g) must not exceed £102,000.
  • Eligible properties can include shared workspace (including renting a chair or desk), working from home in a defined space, individual units, outdoor pitches and storage units.
  • Retail, hospitality and leisure companies, which are too large to apply for the Retail, Leisure and Hospitality Fund with business properties with a rateable value assessment between £51,000 and £102,000 can apply.
  • Applicants must demonstrate a loss of income during the COVID-19 pandemic to be eligible.
  • Firms which are eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme; Statutory Sick Pay scheme; Loan or VAT deferral schemes and / or Self Employed Income Support can apply.
  • Firms may apply for more than 1 grant per property if they have multiple properties, although the applications will be assessed collectively.
  • Applicants whose landlords are eligible for the previous grants can also apply.
  • Applicants which operate across multiple Local Authority areas will only be able to claim one grant from one area.
  • More than 1 business can apply if sharing a property.
  • You must be a director, owner, employee or authorised representative of the firm to make an application.

Who can’t apply?

  • Firms must not be in administration, insolvent or have initiated striking-off notices.
  • Applications will not be accepted from firms which are eligible for / received grants from:
  1. Dairy Hardship Fund;
  2. Domestic Seafood Supply Scheme;
  3. Fisheries Response Fund;
  4. Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant;
  5. Small Business Grant Fund;
  6. Zoos Support Fund.
  • Firms which were awarded Discretionary Grants under round 1.
  • Parish or Town Councils cannot apply, unless they operate as a commercial entity or trust.
  • Applications will not be accepted from national chains or franchises.

What you need to apply:

  • General information:
  1. Full name and address of the business property.
  2. If you are not the owner or director of the company, you will be asked for written authorisation from them.
  3. You must provide a copy of your photo identification for security (driving license or passport).
  4. Company registration number or charity number if you have one.
  5. Business rates account number if you have one.
  6. Unique Tax Reference number (10 digits supplied by HMRC and issued to all sole traders, partnerships and Limited companies).
  7. Bank / building society details to enable payment.
  8. Number of employees (an employee is every person with a contract of employment, who received remuneration by your payroll system within the last six months (up to 11th March 2020).
  9. Please provide a written statement (max 500 words) setting out how the trading position of your business has been impacted by COVID19 since March 2020, including a description of the fixed property costs which you still pay. Your statement must include an estimate around your reduction in income from March to the end of May compared with the similar period last year (or since you started trading if your business is less than a year old). You may supply further evidence to support your written statement.
  10. We may ask you for further information and / or documents to aid your application, but please provide as much information as you can in each section.
  • Property information:
  1. A copy of your lease or rental agreement; mortgage; service charges or site fees. The agreement must have been valid on the 11th March 2020 and must show your fixed property charges.
  2. We will also ask you to type your fixed property costs into the form, where these do not match your property documents please explain why in the notes section of the form and we may ask for further information during assessment of the application.
  3. Home workers must attach a copy of your rental agreement or mortgage, tell us the number of rooms in the home and how many you use for work and attach a photograph of the defined work area.
  4. For renters: contributions to business rates and fixed assets via your landlord are considered to be fixed property costs).
  • Financial information:
  1. You must provide a copy of your most recent bank statement (including the bank name, sort code and account number). This should be for the account you use for your business, even if it’s a personal account.
  2. Please exclude any loans or grant payments / receipts from your income figures.
  3. Please ensure that you fully describe any income loss within your impact statement within the form.

Important notes:

  • Please note that Swindon Borough Council only has access to a specific amount of funding for all the grant schemes, so it is possible that not all eligible applicants will be awarded payments.
  • Eligible applications will be assessed using fixed property costs, income loss and the number of employees.
  • Grant levels will be decided by the number of eligible applications and based on your income loss, fixed property costs and number of employees. We do not expect to award grants above £10,000.
  • Please note that these are grants so they do not have to be repaid and are subject to tax.
  • Grant payments are State Aid and can be given under De Minimis Regulation. Applicants must make a State Aid declaration when applying, for more information please visit the Government’s website https://bit.ly/3gAeD8V and read carefully to ensure that you are accepting the grant under the appropriate State Aid route.
  • The Council will carry out stringent checks on each application and any payment made in error will be recovered. Please note that it is a criminal offence to deliberately give false information in this application and Local Authorities work across boundaries to share information on fraudulent cases.
  • If your business is in financial difficulties, we recommend that you seek additional types of support. Please view the Swindon & Wiltshire Growth Hub https://bit.ly/2AYx7jW where you can make an appointment to speak to an advisor. Also, during this challenging time we want to make you and your staff aware of the local and national support on offer for mental wellbeing: https://bit.ly/3fhVKqy.

Application instructions:

  • Please ensure that you read the guidance fully and have all of the information / documents to hand before starting the process.
  • If applicants do not have a Swindon Borough Council online account, please register at https://myaccount.swindon.gov.uk/q/login, you will later need your log-in details to apply and then check on the status of your application. If your business address is not recognised by the system, please register with your home address.
  • Documents can be scanned or uploaded, or electronic documents, or you can take photographs of documents. PDF; jpeg; Word; Excel or PowerPoint documents are all acceptable.
  • Please clearly label each document including your business name and the description of its content: e.g. ‘Smiths Guesthouse bank statement’.
  • If any of the questions are not relevant, please type NA in the box and move on to the next.
  • Applications which are incomplete or do not provide the required attachments will not be considered. Applicants are recommended to supply as much information as possible to make their case.
  • Please check your inbox (including spam folder) for any correspondence from the Business Grants Team and respond before the application window closes and within 24 hours of receipt.
  • Supporting information provided after the application window closes will not be considered.
  • If you require particular support in using an online form, please contact support@swindon.gov.uk outlining the help you need.
  • If the online portal is busy, please return later to complete your application. We expect the portal to be busier before midday.

Timeline:

  • The application portal will open from Monday 13th July when a link to the application form will be added to the Council webpage (https://bit.ly/2ABrgRo). The portal will remain open until 26th July.
  • After the last applications have been checked and processed, a panel will assess all eligible applications and agree if a grant can be awarded, and if so at what level.
  • Up to 2 weeks after the closing date, all applicants will receive notification either that a grant will be awarded or unfortunately the application was unsuccessful.
  • Please do not contact the team as notification will be sent out as soon as a decision has been made.
  • The Council will make payments into the nominated bank accounts as quickly as possible after the panel has made its decision.
  • There will be no process for appeals or disputes, but if you have made a mistake in the form or believe some information is incorrect please contact support@swindon.gov.uk.
  • Along with prepayment checks, the Council will carry out post payment checks of all grants awarded, including cross boundary comparisons to ensure that all grants awarded are correct. Any grants awarded incorrectly or due to fraudulent applications will be recovered and applicants will be prosecuted where false or misleading information has been provided in order to obtain a grant.