Additional financial support announced for SMEs which fell through the gaps of previous measures

The Women's Organisation has welcomed the additional financial support announced for the thousands of businesses who were missing out on vital financial aid due to Business Rates failure.

The Business Secretary Alok Sharma has added a discretionary £600 million fund to support local small businesses which have so far fallen through the cracks and missed out on emergency business grant funds, because of how they pay their business rates.

This included businesses in shared spaces, regular market traders, small charity properties.

Liverpool social enterprise, The Women’s Organisation, has been actively lobbying around this issue, with several Liverpool City Region MPs adding their support and writing directly to Alok Sharma MP with The Women’s Organisation’s key concerns and recommendations.

In response to the announcement of this additional funding, Maggie O’Carroll, CEO of The Women’s Organisation, says: “Having worked directly with a number of government departments to inform them of the feedback we received from our local business community, we are delighted to see that the Business Secretary Alok Sharma has now put a discretionary fund in place to address these fundamental issues.

“This will prove to be a vital lifeline for those legitimate and viable small businesses that previously fell through the cracks in the financial support available. What we must see now is the swift and urgent allocation of this funding by our Local Authorities so that businesses across the Liverpool City Region have the immediate cash injection that they need to survive, ensuring that we can protect incomes, jobs and the local economy.”

Maggie O’Carroll, CEO of The Women’s Organisation

Thanks to Metro Mayor Steve Rotheram, Kim Johnson MP for Liverpool Riverside, and Mick Whitley MP for Birkenhead, for adding their support.

You can catch up with the original story and find out how The Women's Organisation lobbied Government on this issue, here: https://thewomensorganisation.blogspot.com/2020/04/thousands-of-businesses-missing-out-on.html

For more information on the support available through The Women's Organisation please contact hello@thewo.org.uk