The Help to Grow campaign was first announced in the Spring Budget earlier this year but received yet another mention in the Autumn Budget, as the Government ramps up support for smaller businesses.
Within the latest Budget, the Chancellor committed an extra £196 million in 2024/25 for the Help to Grow Schemes, designed to help more than 100,000 SMEs access management training and advice on innovations intended to boost productivity.
What is Help to Grow: Management?
This aspect of the initiative has already been launched in more than 20 business schools, across the UK. It is offering thousands of businesses the opportunity to access an industry-led curriculum, one-to-one mentoring and alumni network, backed by Government funding. Its goal is to provide better training to business owners and their management teams.
What is Help to Grow: Digital?
This will provide SMEs with impartial, high-quality advice on how to utilise productivity-enhancing software for the good of their business. From December, SMEs will be able to access support through the online platform and vouchers to subsidise the costs associated with adopting new software, including cloud accounting systems and support.
What other support is being offered alongside these programmes?
The Help to Grow Scheme is part of a larger campaign that included the launch of the British Business Bank (BBB). The BBB has already had £484 million invested into it by the Government and the Autumn Budget confirmed a further £1.4 billion of investment further down the line.
The BBB’s primary objective is to help “businesses thrive and address regional finance gaps”; it wants to make sure that small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) can access the finance that they need to thrive.
Funding initiatives from the BBB include the Start-Up Loans Scheme, the Regional Angels Programme and the expanding Regional Funds.
How can businesses access the support on offer?
If businesses are interested in using either the BBB’s loans or the Help to Grow Schemes, they should speak with their advisers first to make sure that the funding and support on offer are suited to their needs.
You can also visit the following sites for more information:
Link: Autumn Budget 2021
