GRANTS AND FUNDING
Watford BID Improvement and Development Grant
The purpose of the grant, which is funded by Watford BID and Watford Borough Council is to encourage businesses which are Watford BID levy payers, to improve their customers' experience. This may include sprucing up a shop front, or furnishing premises, or even enabling sales through a website. The objectives are to improve both the physical feel of the town centre and to encourage a high quality product and consumer experience. Find out more here.
Watford Cultural Support and Development Grant
Applications are now open to local creative businesses and freelancers for financial support grants of up to £5k, or £10k in exceptional circumstances. Funded by Watford Borough Council and delivered by Watford Palace Theatre, it builds on the success of the first round of funding launched last year. Find out more here.
Get Growing is a structured and comprehensive package of business support for SMEs, designed to help you identify and overcome barriers to growth. To be eligible you must be an established business, have five or more full time equivalent employees and be able to demonstrate potential for growth.
A key part of this support is a European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) business grant of up to £3,000 to help you access expertise for specific projects.
https://www.hertsgrowthhub.com/marketplace/2419
You will need to register on the Hertfordshire Growth Hub website to see details of this programme.
Hertfordshire Business Expansion Grant Scheme (BEGS) is designed to support businesses identified as having great propensity to grow, but which have been unable to obtain all, or part, of the financial support they need through traditional methods.
Grants provided under this scheme can be used towards the purchase of machinery and equipment to aid the expansion of a business. This includes the costs of buying plant and machinery, IT equipment, and in certain cases, the acquisition or construction of additional floor-space. Grants will range from £10.000 to £100,000, subject to an aid ceiling of 50% of capital expenditure on fixed assets, and will be linked to the creation of at least one full time job.
https://www.hertsgrowthhub.com/marketplace/36980
You will need to register on the Hertfordshire Growth Hub website to see details of this programme.
Hertfordshire SME Growth Loan Scheme provides growing SMEs across Hertfordshire access to loan finance of between £200,000 and £500.000 from Hertfordshire LEP. The scheme is aimed at businesses with the potential to grow, that have a clear business strategy backed by a supportable business plan but have been unable to obtain all or part of the funding required through traditional methods.
https://www.thefsegroup.com/fund/herts-lep-sme-growth-loan-scheme
Low Carbon Workspaces (LCW) provides support to help SMEs make energy efficiency changes to their premises or processes.
Grants of between £1,000 and £6,750 are available to small and medium sized businesses to cover up to a third of the cost of making energy improvements such as insulation, LED lighting, boilers, heat pumps, solar PV and electric vehicles.