Business start up grant

5. What you cannot use the grant for

Ineligible expenditure includes:

• General revenue expenditure such as, staff costs or any other taxes, hire purchase/lease purchases
• General Vehicles such as cars and vans
• Premises improvement / minor building works
• Repair, maintenance, and decoration costs, including general flooring and carpets
• Replacement of existing fixtures and fittings
• Contingency fees and costs which were committed or spent before the offer and acceptance of the grant
• Working capital costs such as stock, rent, rates, administration
• Membership & affiliation to governing bodies, etc.
• Costs of work being carried out as a legal statutory requirement, inc. planning permission
• Feasibility studies
• Items purchased from a non-commercial or private sellers
• Professional fees associated with general business consultants including business plans/ BID writing and any fees associated in completing an application for grants purposes
• If the business is VAT registered, then VAT will be ineligible. VAT will be payable in cases of non-VAT registered companies. If the applicant is not registered for VAT at the point of application but aims to be registered within the following 12 months, the grant will be payable based upon the NET costs (as the business will be able to claim VAT retrospectively)
• No expenditure should be incurred before grant approval as the grants cannot be awarded retrospectively. We cannot consider items that have been committed for purchase eg a security deposit without prior consent from the grants team. This will be given case by case consideration
• Cash purchases will not be considered for grant payment
• Items purchased through lease purchase, hire purchase, extended credit agreements/finance leases will not be considered for grant funding
• Purchases from private sellers / individuals will not be considered, e.g Facebook Marketplace, etc. We only consider purchases from commercial sellers / suppliers
• Items bought via credit cards are eligible. Limited Companies must use a company credit card for purchases.

We encourage sole traders and partnerships to use business banking / credit cards

The grant must not be used for:

• Party political purposes
• Promotion of particular secular, religious or political views
• Gambling
• Pornography
• Offering sexual services
• Any kind of illegal activity; or
• Any kind of activity which in the opinion of the Council could bring the Council into disrepute which includes but is not limited to non-regulated and invasive procedures, products and treatments, nude or semi-nude modelling, gaming centres, sun bed services, alternative therapies, products and medicines, acupuncture, vape shops, tobacconists, social media influencing, counselling, life coaching, tattooists, speculative building, complimentary medical treatments, cosmetic products, aesthetic procedures, CBD oil products and cryptocurrency.