I recently met with the Economic Development Team from Wiltshire Council to discuss the future of business support across the county. With the recent Central Government announcement that Local Enterprise Partnerships would no longer be funded after April 2024 there has been some concern over what local business support will be on offer. I was pleased to hear that they have a number of schemes in the pipeline to support Wiltshire small businesses.
The Wiltshire Towns Programme is currently running and will launch in the autumn a round of grants designed to help businesses move into vacant units across our High Streets. There is also work in hand to create a Wiltshire Marque to showcase the wonderful range of Wiltshire made products. The programme will also be providing energy efficiency support for businesses helping you to get an audit of your business with a potential grant pot to help you to fund any necessary improvements. Find out more here.
Wiltshire Council are also just about to tender for some business support funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. This should be available from the new year and will help businesses with things like digitalisation, leadership and management skills plus some bespoke start up support. Read more here.
The Invest in Wiltshire grants are currently available for businesses to improve or expand their operations and create employment opportunities whilst helping the business to decarbonise, for example, by reducing carbon-based energy usage or becoming more energy efficient. The scheme closes on 22 September, so there is still time to get your application in.
The Council also run The Enterprise Network across the county, which offers good value small office and coworking space which is sorely needed in such a rural county. You can find out about their different spaces here.
If you’d like to keep up to date with the business support on offer then do sign up for the Wiltshire Council business newsletter here.
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