£50,000 cash to help 200 businesses around Scarborough borough recover from pandemic

Two hundred businesses across the borough are being supported to recover from the coronavirus pandemic, thanks to a £50,000 investment by Scarborough Borough Council.
Small businesses across the borough are being supported to recover from the pandemic thanks to Scarborough Borough Council.Small businesses across the borough are being supported to recover from the pandemic thanks to Scarborough Borough Council.
Small businesses across the borough are being supported to recover from the pandemic thanks to Scarborough Borough Council.

They have been given free membership of the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) providing them with access to a range of support services.

These include legal help and advice about cyber protection, to assistance with accessing funding opportunities, seen as vital as firms recover from three months of lockdown.

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The council announced in April that it would fund up to 300 FSB memberships to help the self-employed, micro and small businesses with 50 or fewer employees.

Between them, the 200 businesses that have taken up the offer so far, employ 700 staff, a value of almost £18m to the local economy.

More than three-quarters of the firms have four or fewer employees.

Cllr Liz Colling, Scarborough Council Cabinet Member for Inclusive Growth, said: “In the early days of the pandemic it became very clear that the smallest firms in the borough would not get all the support they required from government.

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“We knew we needed to be at the forefront of finding different ways to help them at a local level, so we worked with the FSB to develop the free membership offer.

“I’m really pleased that we’ve been able to help so many local small and micro businesses access a professional support package at a time when they need it the most.

“Our economy is made up of many firms with only a handful of members of staff.

“I would encourage any business owner that hasn’t yet applied for membership to contact the FSB very soon while the opportunity is still available.”

Free memberships are still available and interested business owners should email [email protected] adding the words ‘Scarborough Borough’ to the subject field of their email.

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