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Council calls for grant applications from rural micro businesses

May 4, 2022

Lisburn & Castlereagh City Council (LCCC) is delighted to announce that the Rural Business Development Grant Scheme will open on 4th May 2022 for applications from rural micro-businesses.

Rural micro businesses are those located outside the urban settlement limits of Lisburn, Carryduff, Dundonald or Belfast. 

The grant scheme, which offers these businesses up to £4,999 of capital funding, is part of the Tackling Rural Poverty and Social Isolation (TRPSI) Programme, funded by the Department for Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs (DAERA). 

On this occasion, LCCC will be delivering the scheme for rural areas of Lisburn, Castlereagh and the neighbouring rural Belfast areas.    Interested parties must attend a pre-application workshop to be able to apply for the scheme and the deadline to submit your grant application is 12noon on 31st May 2022.

Speaking about the programme, Ald Amanda Grehan, Chair of LCCC’s Development Committee, said: “We’re delighted to offer this grant funding to local rural businesses, helping support business growth while tackling poverty and isolation in these communities. 

“This is a wonderful opportunity to help smaller businesses enhance their offering or to put into motion certain projects that were beyond their reach.  Lisburn and Castlereagh is proud to have administered more than £200,000 in grant aid to local rural micro-businesses through this scheme to date.

“If you’re a rural micro-business with a project in need of support please get in touch and we’ll do our best to help you through the process.”

Eligible applications must be from existing micro-businesses with less than 10 full time employees.  The total capital costs of the projects must be between £1,000 and £20,000. The capital grants are capped at £4,999 at a match-funding rate of 50% from DAERA and 50% from participating businesses. Mainstream agricultural activity is ineligible for support under the scheme.  The minimum grant awarded will be £500.

Examples of eligible expenditure include:

  • New capital equipment/machinery
  • Computer equipment and software
  • E-commerce websites

For more advice regarding eligibility, an application pack or to register to attend one of our mandatory pre-application workshops, please email Dawn Hynes at grant.programmes@lisburncastlereagh.gov.uk or phone 028 9244 7447.

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