Business Support Grant Terms and Conditions
Standard Terms & Conditions
Please ensure that you read and understand these terms and conditions before you submit this application. Should your application be successful, funding will be provided by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund.
Managed locally by Greater Manchester Combined Authority, the UK Shared Prosperity Fund is a UK government fund providing £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
1 General Information
1.1 To apply for funding (‘Business Support grant – Revenue/Capital') you (the 'Applicant') must complete the application form (the 'Application') in full and submit.
1.2 Incomplete Applications, and Applications without supporting documentation, will be returned to you.
1.3 By signing the Application, you agree to be bound by these Terms and Conditions and the conditions set out in this Application.
1.4 You agree to participate in any promotional material by the relevant funding body publicising the benefits of the Fund.
1.5 GM Business Support Limited (company number 08132524) is entitled to vary these terms and conditions at any time and will give notice to you if necessary.
1.6 For the period – November 2024 - March 2025 you also agree to provide The Enterprise Team with evidence of (i) Any further jobs or sales created over or above those stated in your application and/or (ii) Any jobs created by the funding award which are subsequently lost.
1.7 Funding is discretionary, and consideration of this Application does not constitute any obligation to make an award.
1.8 Please note that this grant is outside the scope of VAT. If you are not VAT registered your invoice should be the total amount for the goods or services inclusive of VAT. If you are VAT registered the total amount should be exclusive of VAT.
2 Eligibility
2.1 Funding will not be paid for expenditure incurred prior to the issue date of your offer letter (the 'Offer Letter') confirming your allocation.
2.2 You must therefore ensure that you have received the Offer Letter (either electronically or in hard copy) confirming that you are eligible for a Business Support Grant Application – Revenue/Capital before you enter into any agreement with suppliers. You must not place an order, commission, or purchase any goods/services prior to receiving your Offer Letter as funding payments cannot be made retrospectively against activity that has already occurred or been arranged.
2.3 Payment of the funding will be made on receipt of your invoice, which is dated after the date of the Offer Letter.
2.4 In order to avoid public funding distorting competition and in line with the Trade Cooperation Agreement, limits are applied to the levels of assistance which the public sector can provide to organisation / enterprise (“Subsidy Control”). The assistance provided to you from the Business Growth Hub Services will comply with the Subsidy Control legislation by applying Article 3.2.4 of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement, which enables an Economic Act to receive up to a maximum level of subsidy without engaging Chapter 3 of the Trade and Cooperation Agreement (a “Small Amount of Financial Assistance”). The current threshold is up to £315k to a single economic actor (including associated legal entities such as current or former subsidiaries) over a period of three fiscal years.
3 Offer of Funding
3.1 If your application is approved, GM Business Support Limited will issue you with an Offer Letter. The Offer Letter will specify next steps and evidence required once your project has started, or goods have been purchased. Evidence will need to be sent to GM Business Support Limited by the agreed date in your offer letter otherwise your offer of funding may be withdrawn.
3.2 Funding offers are discretionary and are subject to availability of funding GM Business Support Limited cannot and do not guarantee that any application for a Business Support Grant Application – Revenue/Capital will be successful.
3.3 Any offer of funding will be made on the basis of the information you have supplied in this application. If any of this information changes, including contact details, you have an obligation to inform the GM Business Support Limited of the change in writing, within one working week. Depending on the nature of the change, the terms of the funding may be altered, or the offer of funding withdrawn.
3.4 You agree that should an offer of funding be awarded as a result of your application; the funding may only be used against the activities as stated within this Application.
3.5 Any offer of funding made is personal to the Applicant and accordingly you are not entitled to transfer any of your rights or obligations in respect of that funding offer and these terms and conditions without prior written consent of GM Business Support Limited.
3.6 The project or activity or purchase of goods must not have commenced prior to the date of your Offer Letter. You must not place an order, arrange any training, commission, or purchase any goods/services prior to receiving an Offer Letter as payment cannot be made retrospectively.
3.7 You agree that should an offer of funding be made; you will be expected to pay your share of the project costs and agree that no third party will pay or refund your share of the project costs. This includes entering into a lease, hire purchase or finance agreement or other such agreement with a third party, such as a finance organisation.
3.8 You agree not to enter into any agreement for the remaining share of the Project cost from any public (whether UK or European) funded organisation, without written agreement by GM Business Support Limited.
3.9 Any relationship to employees of GM Business Support Limited must be declared.
4 Funding Payments
4.1 The Applicant will provide GM Business Support Limited with satisfactory evidence that the project has commenced or goods have been purchased.
4.2 Payment of Business Support Grant will be made on receipt of all the required document(s), e.g. your invoice; any other documentation that maybe requested by GM Business Support Limited, all post-dating the date of the Offer Letter.
4.3 Subject to all the terms having been met, GM Business Support Limited pays the agreed proportion of the total project cost to the maximum sum detailed in the Offer Letter. However, should the sum of supplier invoice(s) be less than the original project cost, GM Business Support Limited will reduce the funding allocation accordingly.
5 Ongoing Monitoring
5.1 Consistent with external funder requirements of the Business Support project, the Applicant may be required to provide ongoing written confirmation and evidence of the existence of project outputs throughout both the operational programme (to March 202 and ongoing monitoring period (March 2031). The exact nature of this written confirmation will be provided at the time of the funder request. Where this evidence is withheld by the Applicant, GM Business Support Limited reserves the right to recover the funding awarded.
5.2 Please note, any information or documentation provided to GM Business Growth Hub will be handled securely and confidentially as per our group GC Quality and Information Security Policy. Any evidence requested is in line with our funder requirements and compliance obligations.
6 Your Commitment
6.1 The support we provide is fully funded and we will need to collect the baseline data (outlined below) at the start of our support and continuously maintain and monitor impact on a regular basis to meet our funder requirements.
* If you are trading / a registered organisation / enterprise your business registration information
* VAT registration number (if applicable)
* Baseline financials - employee numbers, turnover, salary, costs, pre-tax profit and depreciation.
* We will also assess the impact of our support and gather information on financial activity, predicted and actual number of jobs created, new products or processes implemented, and any other benefits of the programme undertaken. Where appropriate we may require formal verification by yourselves on company letter headed paper to outline the impact and the outcomes achieved as a result of the support we have provided.
* We ask that you provide us with 24 hours’ notice if you need to cancel or change an appointment. We reserve the right to remove our support if repeat appointments are cancelled late or where a client repeatedly doesn’t attend appointments.
6.2 Any discrepancy in payments made to the recipient e.g. the receipt showing evidence of goods/supplier is less than the quote the recipient will be required to return the excess amount upon request.
