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Cost Savings Hub
Welcome to Chamber Cost Saving Hub
Introducing our NEW cost saving hub!
Businesses, and their employees, across Herefordshire and Worcestershire have been and continue to face challenges with the costs of doing business and cost of living generally. These pressures combined, make business growth hard to maintain. We’ll continue to carry out research into business conditions, seek support locally and nationally, and share best practice from Members and business partners.
The Cost Saving Hub seeks to provide quick links to real cost savings and will be updated as our Chamber team find and receive new information.
PEOPLE
It is widely recognised that People are a business’s most important asset. This becomes more important when that asset are experiencing hardship and the labour market is so tight.
Use this section to find direct cost support for your PEOPLE.
PEOPLE
Graduate Development Programme
Grant support to help part fund a new graduate position for recent local graduates
Delivery Partner: Worcestershire County Council
Value: up to £6,250
End Date: N/a
County: Worcestershire
Apprenticeship Grant to encourage small to medium sized enterprises to employ new apprentices
Delivery Partner: Wychavon District Council
Value: up to £2,000
End Date: End FY 23/24
County: Worcestershire
Knowledge Transfer Partnership
Grant to part fund a KTP
Delivery Partner: KTN
End Date: Feb 24
County: Herefordshire & Worcestershire
PLANNING
Recruitment and workforce support, including legislation
FREE Salary and Benefits report for local salary/benefit research and data comparison
Enterprising Worcestershire Start-Up support
Delivery Partner: Worcestershire County Council
End Date: N/A
County: Worcestershire
TRAINING
Introduction to Digital Marketing and PR
FREE training course (eligibility: Chamber Members)
Delivery Partner: HW Chamber
Value: £150
County: Herefordshire & Worcestershire
FREE online training modules, on a number of topics
FREE online training modules, on a number of topics including:
Equality/Diversity/Inclusion, contracts/hours/pay, dealing with workplace problems, leave and time off, managing people/performance, mental health and redundancy
Delivery Partner: ACAS
County: Herefordshire & Worcestershire
Upskilling Grant to help with the business cost of training new staff
Upskilling Grant to help with the business cost of training new staff (i.e. apprenticeships, trainee or other)
Delivery Partner: Malvern Hills District Council
Value: up to £1,500
County: Worcestershire
Free workplace wellbeing support
A range of government programmes are available for employers who are considering hiring employees, offering work experience or upskilling existing staff, some of which offer financial incentives
BUSINESS COSTS
Businesses have reported increasingly that cost pressures are creating problems. Supply chain concerns following Brexit, Covid, and the Ukraine War were then overtaken by energy costs, interest rates and inflationary increases.
Use this section to find direct cost support for your BUSINESS COSTS.
ENERGY
Free advice, energy assessments and grants for energy efficiency and renewable energy measures to SMEs
Energy Efficiency Programme & Funding
High energy usage businesses to benefit from further government support
Energy Bill Relief
Energy Bills Discount Scheme
Net Zero Worcestershire Support
FREE Business Energy Audits
RATES
Small business rates relief - Worcester
Rateable value must be less that £15k
Delivery Partner: Worcester City Council
County: Worcestershire
Small business rates relief - Redditch
Rateable value must be less that £15k
Delivery Partner: Redditch Borough Council
County: Worcestershire
Rates Funding
COMMUNITIES
Funding for Charities & Voluntary sector
GROWTH
Chambers of Commerce have an passion for local business growth at its core. Growth of business supports the local community, creating prosperity for its people.
Use this section to find direct cost support for your business GROWTH.
START UPS
Business Start Up Funding Worcester
Support grants for new and young businesses in the Malvern Hills district
Delivery Partner: Malvern Hills District Council
Value: Up to £1,000
County: Worcestershire
FREE Startup and self-employment programme
Coaching for Businesses in Worcestershire under 3 years old
If you have launched a business within the last 3 years and are looking to further establish yourself in the market, Enterprising Worcestershire’s Coaching Programme can help you to do just that. The fully funded programme can help you to establish a strong foundation, empower you to make informed decisions and guide your business to develop and grow.
Delivery Partner: Worcestershire County Council
County: Worcestershire
Rural Enterprise Fund
The aims of the grant are to support new and existing businesses to develop new products and facilities that will be of wider benefit to the local economy. This includes farm businesses looking to diversify outside of agriculture.
Delivery Partner: Herefordshire Council
County: Herefordshire
BUSINESS SUPPORT
FREE Business Support
FREE Business mentoring
FREE Professional Business Advisors
FREE 1-2-1 expert advice to help Worcestershire businesses
Delivery Partner: Worcestershire Growth Hub
County: Worcestershire
British Business Bank Finance Hub
Help for creative businesses to grow
Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA)
Innovation for a Safer Future
Delivery Partner: HM Gov
County: Herefordshire & Worcestershire
Malvern Hills Town Centre Support Scheme Grant
Funded by the UK Government through the UK Shared Prosperity Fund, the aim of the scheme is to support investment by independent traders within the five town centres of the Malvern Hills district (Great Malvern, Malvern Link incl. Link Top, Barnards Green, Upton and Tenbury).
Delivery Partner: Malvern Hills District Council and HM Gov
County: Malvern
Malvern Hills Enterprise Scheme
The aim of the scheme is to support new and young businesses in the Malvern Hills district. The scheme will encourage the occupation of vacant commercial premises, help regenerate town centres, stimulate entrepreneurship, create new jobs, and enhance the sustainability of new businesses.
Delivery Partner: Malvern Hills District Council and HM Gov
County: Malvern
Marches Growth Hub Herefordshire Business Workshops
Delivery Partner: The Marches LEP
County: Herefordshire
Workshops:
Worcestershire Growth Hub - Skills Bootcamp
Local businesses can access funded training to help upskill or retrain their staff via Skills Bootcamps.
Skills Bootcamps, part of the Government’s Skills for Life programme, are shaped training courses that have been co-designed to benefit employers and respond to their skills shortages.
Delivery Partner: Worcestershire Growth Hub
County: Worcestershire
Worcestershire Growth Hub - Help to Grow Programme
The Help to Grow: Management Course is a government funded, leadership course aimed at Senior Managers in small and medium sized businesses. The course is designed in collaboration with industry experts, experienced entrepreneurs, and Business Schools. The Help to Grow: Management Course provides practical skills and knowledge to develop employees, build business resilience, increase profits and support growth.
Delivery Partner: Worcestershire Growth Hub and Business School 2023
County: Worcestershire
Herefordshire Council - December Cost-of-living Monthly Monitoring Report
The December 2023 cost-of-living monthly monitoring report has just been published on the Cost-of-Living page of the Understanding Herefordshire website. The monthly monitoring report is a supplementary report to the quarterly Cost-of-Living Bulletin, the latest (October 2023) edition of which is also available from the same page, and provides the latest data from the limited number of relevant datasets that are updated on a monthly basis. Topics include inflation, Universal Credit and out-of-…
Delivery Partner: Herefordshire Council
FINANCE
Business Loan
Merchant Cash Advance Finance for businesses trading less than 12 months
Finance for SMEs in the UK with no fixed payments, fixed terms or security required
Delivery Partner: Marches Growth Hub
Value: up to £300,000
County: Herefordshire
GRANTS
Unrestricted grants for small specialist charities
Delivery Partner: Lloyds Bank Foundation
Value: up to £75,000
County: Herefordshire & Worcestershire
Growth Grant for Businesses that have been trading longer than 12 months
Booster grant (to create jobs or emerge into new markets) for businesses over 2 years
UKSPF Cultural Development Grant
This grant scheme is designed to help existing local cultural, historic and heritage institutions to strengthen their operation, enhance their visitor offer and put on more programming specifically linked to their sites or assets.
Delivery Partner: Herefordshire Gov
County: Herefordshire
UKSPF Business Enterprise Fund
The UKSPF Business Enterprise Fund is a capital grant scheme that has been funded by the UK Shared Prosperity Fund. Its aim is to enable Herefordshire businesses to increase their productivity and become more resilient through the adoption of new (to the business) technologies and processes.
Delivery Partner: Herefordshire Gov
County: Herefordshire
Herefordshire Visitor Experience Fund
The aims of the scheme are to support the tourism sector and help it remain an effective and successful contributor to the local economy.
Delivery Partner: Herefordshire Council
County: Herefordshire
Marches Capital Investment Fund
A major new capital investment fund worth £500,000 as been launched by the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership.
Applications are now open for the fund which will be used to invest in projects which boost business, help build skills and employability and drive the move to Net Zero.
Delivery Partner: Marches Local Enterprise Partnership
County: Herefordshire
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Contact our Chamber Membership team to find out how we can help your business.