Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced the new Help to Grow scheme to support UK small businesses.
A new multimillion pound training scheme aimed at helping small UK businesses become more productive has been revealed in the 2021 Budget. Called Help to Grow it is designed to help 130,000 SME businesses across the country become more productive.
We have covered the other aspects of the budget on the blog, see how it could affect your business.
The plan for Help to Grow is to empower UK businesses leading the way out of the pandemic by becoming more productive in the short and long term .
Qualifying companies, which we believe includes SME trade businesses, will receive expert technology advice and discounted software.
How will Help to Grow work?
The Government said that firms will have access to digital and management services under the new scheme, which is expected to run in 12-week programmes. The scheme has two main elements:
- Eligible businesses will be given vouchers to get up to 50% off the purchase of new productivity-enhancing software, up to £5,000 each.
- These businesses can also apply for 50 hours of tuition from a number of businesses schools, including individual support from a mentor.
The scheme will launch on the Gov.uk website in the summer.
How much will the Help to Grow scheme cost?
The cost of the Help to Grow scheme is expected to total £520 million. However Powered Now believes the benefits to this cost outweigh this initial outlay, especially for the trade and construction industry in the UK which lags behind other countries for productivity.
In 2016 the UK government commissioned the Farmer Report looking into productivity across the construction and trade industry, the findings were damming with UK output being significantly behind other nations. In many cases the productivity gap was as much as 20%.
When will Help to Grow start?
It is expected the scheme will commence in the summer of '21, please keep an eye on the Powered Now Help to Grow page for further updates.
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