Businesses in Ealing will shortly be able to begin applying for three grants to help offset the financial burden caused by the coronavirus pandemic. The first applications to open will be the covid hardship, aviation sector and culture sector grants on 26 February, other schemes will follow shortly after.

The grants are part of the government’s additional restrictions grant scheme, a discretionary fund awarded to the council to help local businesses who are not eligible for other forms of financial support and have fixed ongoing costs such as rent or mortgage payments, loans or lease agreements for capital equipment or rental of workspaces. 

Ealing Council has been allocated almost £10million by the government for the scheme and has identified six schemes for local businesses. These include:

1. Business pioneers grant – available to Ealing’s entrepreneurs, micro and small businesses that can be used for testing, prototyping innovations, supporting adaptations and diversifications of products or services
2. Aviation sector grant – open to businesses across all sectors, including home-based businesses, self-employed, freelancers and businesses who supply Heathrow Airport or service the multiple sectors linked to the airport and rely upon the aviation economy across the borough
3. Cultural sector grant – open to cultural organisations and individual creatives who work in the creative and digital industries, the arts and businesses who contribute to the borough’s cultural economy
4. Nursery support grant – for registered nursery providers
5. Covid hardship grant – for businesses who have suffered financial hardship as a result of the Covid pandemic. Eligibility criteria apply
6. Business support allocation – a series of support packages, responding to business needs and priorities as they adapt to an evolving economy.

Each of the business grants has a separate application window and further details of each can be found on the council’s website.

Councillor Bassam Mahfouz, cabinet member for finance and leisure, “We know that these are desperate times for so many businesses who have been forced to close or restrict their operations during the pandemic. With this in mind, we have carefully reviewed the unique mix of businesses that we are fortunate to have in Ealing and believe that these schemes will provide much needed funding to many businesses who have missed out on other support and may have fallen through the many gaps in the current myriad of government grants for businesses. We hope this funding will go some way to keep them afloat until things return to normal.”  

“If you have been unable to receive funding  up to this point, I urge you  to carefully review the funding categories and, when they open, apply as quickly as possible to ensure that you don’t miss out,” said Councillor Dhindsa, cabinet member for business and community services. “Entrepreneurs and businesses are vital to our whole community and we will continue to seek ways to support them during this most challenging time.”

Ealing Council has been continuously supporting businesses in Ealing throughout the COVID-19 pandemic and has so far distributed £97million of grants and £59million of reliefs.

Keep up to date

Businesses can get the latest information including details of grant funding application rounds by signing up to receive the weekly business newsletter. Information is also available on our Help for business webpages.