Rural Businesses To Benefit From Grants Totalling £230k

Rural businesses across Harborough are being urged to apply for a share of £230,000 to help them diversify, innovate and grow.

Grants of between £5,000 and £20,000 are available for eligible businesses, across four different themes.

Harborough District Council is running the grants scheme after receiving funding from the government’s Rural England Prosperity Fund.

Edward Brown, of The Kings Head pub, in Smeeton Westerby received a grant last year and  said: “Being awarded a grant has helped the business grow. It has allowed us to completely transform an underused, environmentally inefficient space, into a flexible room that provides additional seating for events, meals and a cafe. This, we hope, will allow us to provide a better level of service to the community.

“The pub stopped serving food nearly five years ago, so being able to provide appropriate space, whether in a cafe capacity, or otherwise, is a big step forward for us. So far, in under a month, we have hosted three fully booked food events in the space and hope to open the cafe around Easter time. To have been able to achieve this in our first year of trading would not have been possible without this support.”

Cllr Galton, Deputy Leader of Harborough District Council, said: “Building on the success of the scheme last year, we are delighted to use funding from the Rural England Prosperity Fund to support rural businesses in the Harborough district with growth and development. We want rural businesses to do well so I encourage them to go online and apply.”

Applications can be made until September 27th and to find out more click HERE