Oxford City Council is inviting applications for a new round of business support grants.
The Government has awarded the City Council a further allocation of Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) to help businesses to recover from the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic and to help rebuild the local economy.
There are two grant options.
Hardship/Survival Grant July – available December 2021
Applications are now open for businesses to apply for a Hardship/Survival Grant. This is to support businesses severely impacted by the lack of international visitors (tourists and students) due to the COVID-19 pandemic in the following sectors:
- Creative and cultural
- Visitor economy
- Hospitality
- Language schools
Eligible businesses can apply for a one-off grant of between £5,000 and £20,000 and need to show that their revenue fell by more than 80% in July to September 2021, compared with the same period in 2019.
ARG #Buildbackbetter Grants – available October 2021
The remainder of the Council's ARG allocation will be used to help individual or groups of businesses to fast-track new products or services in response to the COVID-19 pandemic or the Zero Emission Zone (ZEZ) within Oxford City.
Grants will be one-off payments between £1,000 and £10,000 for individual businesses and up to £40,000 for groups of businesses who have ideas to implement new ways of working and/or new resilient business models, such as an online service or delivery system.
Applications will open in mid-October.
The City Council has provided £55m in grant support to businesses throughout the pandemic.
Councillor Susan Brown, Leader of Oxford City Council, said: “Oxford businesses have been extremely resilient throughout the pandemic and thankfully, with the lifting of lockdown restrictions, many are beginning to recover from the impacts. But the lack of international visitors because of the pandemic has impacted the city and these survival grants offer crucial financial support to many businesses.
“We also need to find new ways of working to build resilience for the future and the #buildbackbetter grants can help a range of organisations to capitalise on new opportunities. As with our previous grant schemes, I urge businesses to submit their application for a grant as soon as possible and access the support available to them.”
