Liverpool City Region Offers Recovery Support for Local SME’s

A £3million Liverpool City Region (LCR) Future Innovation Fund is to provide grants for SME’s that have reacted innovatively to the changed business environment created by COVID-19.

Launched by Steve Rotheram, Metro Mayor of the LCR and delivered through Growth Platform, the new fund is part of a wider response by the Metro Mayor and the Liverpool City Region Combined Authority, to re-purpose and re-shape the funding available for businesses.

Accessed via the Strategic Investment Fund which opened up on June 12, grants of between £25,000 and £100,000 have been offered. Subsequent releases of the fund will be shaped by learning from the initial scheme.

Steve Rotheram said: “Businesses in Liverpool City Region have shown an unbelievable ability to adapt and innovate their current business models to successfully weather these extremely challenging times. The overriding priority for us all has to be the safety of the people who live and work in the city region. We need to ensure those businesses are supported so that they can help drive our ambitions for inclusive growth in the city region beyond the far-reaching impact of COVID-19.

 “Our economy will need major financial support from central government to recover, but we have to do what we can to support businesses in the here and now.” He added: “This is a limited fund, but I am sure that it will make a huge difference to businesses who have shown innovation, ingenuity and agility in their responses to this terrible economic shock.”

The grants will be awarded to businesses that can demonstrate alignment to the Local Industrial Strategy priority areas including manufacturing and engineering, open health innovation, zero carbon economy, global cultural capital, tech for good and digitalisation.

Eligible companies must be a registered SME, operational before January 1, 2020, with headquarters or significant operations in the Liverpool City Region.

More information at www.liverpoolcityregion-ca.gov.uk