A PERTHSHIRE enterprise support organisation has launched what is claimed to be the first multi-million pound campaign of its kind to support thousands of small businesses across rural Scotland.
The GrowBiz move comes as over 60 per cent of rural and island businesses in Scotland had to halt all business activity at the start of the pandemic, with only 8% reporting that they were operating as usual.
GrowBiz said that although many will be able to start to prepare for reopening in July, the financial impact of the lengthy period of non-trading will “make it impossible for many businesses to fully recover”. It said many are disproportionately affected by the Covid-19 pandemic.
READ MORE: Small firms adapt digital technology amid coronavirus crisis
The REDS Fund: Supporting Rural Scotland’s Future aims to raise £3 million by August 6, which it is claimed will support almost 1200 rural micro-enterprises across Scotland, working with Crowdfund Scotland.
Jackie Brierton, GrowBiz chief executive, said: “The coronavirus crisis has had a devastating impact on thousands of Scotland’s micro-enterprises, which form the backbone of our rural economy.
“In order for these businesses to survive in the short-term, they need support - both financial and practical - and a sense that they’ll be assisted to adapt where necessary and ultimately recover.
“One of the key target groups for the funding will be young people. Benny Higgins’ economic recovery report earlier this week highlighted the need for a jobs guarantee for 16-25 year olds but in rural areas, opportunities for self-employment and enterprise may be a more viable solution for this age group.”
Rural businesses will be able to apply to the fund for grants of up to £5000.
The project is designed to help micro-enterprises connect and help each other and will work on a 50:50 principle so 50 per cent of the grant awarded will go the business requiring the support and 50% to whichever business provides them with a service or support.
Why are you making commenting on HeraldScotland only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules here