South Kesteven District Council has been recognised for its exceptional work on Covid support and recovery for the business community.
The accolade came at the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) Local Government Awards, where the Council was shortlisted in the East Midlands category.
The nomination highlights South Kesteven District Council’s support for small businesses, which form the backbone of local economies and communities.
The Council’s economic development team focused attention on allocating £1.2m of its Additional Restrictions Grant to support new and existing businesses to diversify and be more resilient.
Head of Economic Development Jon Hinde said: “The team worked exceptionally hard during lockdown – to get new systems up and running as quickly as possible, then swiftly distributed the subsequent payments.
“As a direct result new and existing businesses were able to deliver wide-ranging and diverse initiatives which developed additional revenue streams, new markets, higher productivity and increased profits while preserving and even creating jobs.
The work helped 165 local businesses to benefit from match funding. Overall, the scheme generated more than £1.25m of private sector investment.
The extensive range of initiatives the Council continues to support are bringing long-term benefits to help grow the local economy.
Mr Hinde added: “Linking additional one-to-one business support to the grants, meant businesses received a tailored support to meet their unique business goals.
“The Council aims to be the first port of call for quality business support advice. The shortlist was put together with great consideration, research and knowledge. It takes hard work to achieve a shortlisting and this nomination shows the FSB recognises the Council as leading in the business support arena.”
South Kesteven District Council supported business during and after the pandemic, targeting micro and small and medium-sized enterprises (SME) across many sectors, which included:
An engineering business outsourcing powder coating. A grant of £12,500, combined with their contribution of £22,700, enabled an internal powder coating plant, creating new jobs and protecting existing jobs through the new revenue stream created
A new wedding event photographer was able to use a matched grant of £9,100 to open a studio for specialist portrait photography not previously available, resulting in the doubling of sales
A retail business moved to better located premises using a match funded grant with new shop fittings extending products offered, coupled with computerising stock to offer online sales which has almost doubled income and created new jobs
A food producer received a grant to support new machinery which has enabled products to be produced five times faster to remove capacity limits preventing growth. A new sales position was created following the increased capacity.
South Kesteven District Council was nominated for this award alongside Lincolnshire County Council, Leicester City Council and the category winner, Charnwood Borough Council.
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