Business Support & Funding

Westmorland and Furness Council’s grant finding tool for communities and businesses

The funding portal is designed to help communities and businesses easily locate available funding opportunities. The tool is part of the council’s ongoing commitment to support local business growth, innovation and development, and to enable community groups and others to flourish, making Westmorland and Furness a great place to live, work and thrive.

We encourage all community members, businesses, and organisations to explore the new grant finding tool and take advantage of the funding opportunities available. With this tool, users can search for available grants tailored to their specific needs and projects, streamlining the process of securing financial support. Click here to start exploring available funding, and navigate to either the community or business portal.

Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II

The Northern Powerhouse Investment Fund II offers a range of commercial finance options with smaller loans and debt finance from £25,000 to £2 million and equity investment up to £5 million. The fund covers the whole of the North, including rural, coastal and urban areas. 

Click here for more details.

Barclays Eagle Labs Funding Readiness Programme

The Funding Readiness Programme is designed to demystify funding options available to entrepreneurs and provide them with the skills and knowledge needed to fund business growth. Participants will join an exclusive community with access to webinars, interactive workshops, networking events and written resources. Sessions will cover the basics of grant funding, crowdfunding, equity investment as well as other funding options.

Click here to find out more about the Funding Readiness Programme.
Season 13 Autumn 2024 is now open for applications. Click here to make an application to the Funding Readiness Programme.

Enterprising Cumbria – Cumbria Accelerator Westmorland & Furness

Support for aspiring entrepreneurs to develop their business ideas and innovations alongside provision of advice to existing businesses to identify opportunities to expand, grow and improve productivity and profits.

The programme is supporting up to 450 new local entrepreneurs at various stages of their start-up journey, by offering free, one to one business advice with an experienced advisor, to help to explore opportunities to start new businesses, with a wider view to increase the number of sustainable new businesses in the local area. Additionally, over 400 existing SMEs will be assisted to help overcome challenges, become more competitive and resilient and to consider opportunities for growth, whether this be to expand into new markets, adopt new innovations and ways of working, cut business costs or improve marketing campaigns to grow their customer base.

The programme has already awarded over £700,000 of grants to businesses for projects to boost growth, protect existing jobs and create new jobs.

For more information please email leslie.rickerby@thecumbrialep.co.uk

This project received £1,630,000 from Westmorland and Furness Council and the UK Government from the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and runs until January 2025.

Cumbria Business Growth Hub – Rural Business Support

Advice is available up to December 2024 for small and micro businesses in rural areas of Westmorland and Furness to support:

• Businesses to overcome challenges facing them and respond positively to opportunities
• Farming businesses to respond to the phasing out of the Basic Payment Scheme and wider challenges and opportunities including diversification

This includes:

• Advice vouchers of up to £500, which can be used with an adviser of your choice – no match funding is needed but you can choose to add more
• Workshops to support growth and resilience and help you navigate the new subsidy regimes, delivered through The Farmer Network – access workshops here
• Adviser support through the Growth Hub’s team, including access to finance and hospitality specialists and more

The programme is delivered by Cumbria Chamber of Commerce, working with a number of partners, including the Farmer Network, Cumbria Tourism, Lake District National Park Authority and NFU. The programme has already awarded over £700,000 of capital grants to businesses for purchase of equipment and small scale infrastructure improvements to help grow, diversify, innovate and improve productivity.

This project received £1,016,387 from Westmorland and Furness Council and the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.

Cumbria Action for Sustainability – Westmorland and Furness Green Enterprise Hub

The Green Enterprise Hub is dedicated to supporting local businesses on their journey towards decarbonisation and sustainability. It offers tailored expert advice, training and events, grants, and a vibrant network of partners and collaborators, for small and medium-sized businesses and social enterprises. CAfS are working with a range of partners including the Chamber of Commerce, Cumbria Tourism, Lancaster University and Green Small Business to deliver the project.

For specific advice for your business you can contact their helpdesk on 01768 210 276 or at greenhub@cafs.org.uk

This project received £571,359 from Westmorland and Furness Council and the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and runs until January 2025.

Cumbria Social Enterprise Partnership – A Social Enterprise Zone for Westmorland and Furness

The Social Enterprise Zone aims to create the best possible conditions for new social enterprises and community businesses to form and for the existing sector to innovate and grow by providing a full wrap-around and bespoke service of business advice and guidance and grants for start-up costs, investment in new products and services, and to improve existing business premises.

For further inquiries and detailed guidelines please contact Becx Carter at CSEP on 077866 78283 or at becx.carter@secumbria.org.uk

This project received £528,447 from Westmorland and Furness Council and the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund and runs until January 2025.

These projects are funded by Westmorland and Furness Council and the UK Government. The UK Shared Prosperity Fund provides £2.6 billion of funding for local investment by March 2025. The Fund aims to improve pride in place and increase life chances across the UK investing in communities and place, supporting local business, and people and skills. For more information, visit https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/uk-shared-prosperity-fund-prospectus.