Simon Clarke MP, Minister for Regional Growth and Local Government has recently announced £20 million in new grant funding to help small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) across England recover from the COVID-19 pandemic.
SMEs will be able to access grants between £1,000 – £5,000 to help them adopt new technologies, purchase necessary equipment, and access professional, legal, financial, and other advice services to help them get back on track.
These new grants may serve as a proof of concept for larger and more comprehensive programmes to drive digital adoption amongst SMEs in particular.
Technology and data will be critical to companies bouncing back from the pandemic. It will also enable businesses to protect themselves and strive for growth in an economy saddled with record levels of debt.
Unlike in 2008, access to digital technologies, cloud storage and data analysis are enabling faster results, greater agility and collaboration, and better forecasting. Laggard organisations that decline to embrace technology will fail.
However, with the focus for many businesses currently being on survival, rather then growth, SMEs are in danger of falling further behind without help from the government.
Increasing the adoption of productivity-boosting digital services and technologies such as cloud services, Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) and Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software, and digital accountancy platforms, will enable SMEs both to achieve efficiencies and improve competiveness.
The support will be fully funded by the government from the England European Regional Development Fund and distributed through Growth Hubs, embedded in local areas across England.
Activities supported through the £20 million can include:
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One-to-many events providing guidance to respond to coronavirus,
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Grants (£1,000 – £5,000) to help businesses access specialist professional advice such as HR, accountants, legal, financial, IT and digital, and to purchase minor equipment to adapt or adopt new technology in order to continue to deliver business activity or diversify.
