I am happy to announce that a partnership between East Staffordshire Borough Council and Staffordshire County Council to get more money and support to businesses needing help during and after the pandemic has spent over £304,000 in East Staffordshire.
I believe small businesses are the stalwart of our economy, and through this scheme we’ve been able to help more businesses with more funding and more support, quicker, and that’s made an incredible difference to many people. Alongside this, I am proud to say the Borough Council was able to allocate a further £100,000 to its Business Springboard Boost grant scheme, which has now been extended with a further £100,000 for 2022/23 and is currently open to people looking to set up or businesses looking to grow.
The Staffordshire Means Back to Business scheme was set up by Staffordshire County Council to help small businesses to get more financial and practical help at the start of the pandemic, finishing in March 2022.
Now an additional £3.4m has been invested countywide into almost 1,000 businesses, with businesses across East Staffordshire benefiting from £304,000 from the Borough and County Councils.
As part of this, over 150 employees have been upskilled, 18 new apprentices have been recruited, eight business have received survival and growth funding and £25,000 in interest free start-up loans has been invested.
Thanks to the success of the unique partnership, those interested in starting up their own business can now take advantage of fully-funded business planning and marketing advice through the UK Government- funded Get Started scheme - https://www.staffordshire.gov.uk/Business/Staffordshire-means-Back-to-Business-Support-Scheme/Get-Started-with-your-business-with-county-council-support-programme.aspx
