£40,000 re-directed to help SMEs boost productivity

The funding, from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, will instead be used to provide grants through a project to help small businesses with their productivity.

A report by the council’s assistant chief executive states that the low carbon project “continues to have difficulties in committing grants, whereas the productivity project has a strong pipeline of applications that can complete quickly.”

The business productivity project offers grants to small and medium businesses for projects that improve business operations and create new employment opportunities.

Grants of up to half of project costs are available, with a maximum value of £7,500 for individual businesses.

The grants can be used for a variety of purposes, such as purchasing new equipment or implementing systems such as customer relationship management software to improve efficiency and staff productivity.