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Business grant information for Wakefield

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Good Trip Digital

Dear Wakefield City Council,

I’d like to request the following information about business grants offered by your council:

1. What grants are available for startups and SMEs?
2. Is there a cap or allowance on how much businesses can claim from grants you currently offer?
3. How much money has your council paid out via business grants to local businesses in the last five years?

Yours faithfully,

Good Trip Digital

freedomofinformation, Wakefield City Council

Dear Sir/Madam,

 

REQUEST FOR INFORMATION - FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 / ENVIRONMENTAL
INFORMATION REGULATIONS 2004

 

Thank you for your email requesting information from Wakefield Council. 

 

Please note, responses may take longer than usual due to the current
Coronavirus situation.

 

Your request will now be validated and logged for processing.  For your
request to be valid under the Freedom of Information (FOI) Act it will
need to include your full name and describe the information you are
requesting clearly, we will write to you to seek clarification should this
be required.  It is our intention to have the response delivered to you
within 20 working days from the working day your request is received. 
Please note, requests received on non-working days, such as weekends and
bank holidays, will be recorded as being received on the next working
day. 

 

All requests submitted under the Freedom of Information Act 2000 may be
subject to exemptions, which the Authority is entitled to apply to refuse
requests in full or parts of requests.  Further information around the
exemptions that may be applied can be found via the following link: 
[1]https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gui....

 

In some situations the decision to withhold information, or not, will be
based on a public interest test.  You will be advised of the
considerations and decisions as well as your rights of appeal within your
response. 

 

Requests submitted under the Environmental Information Regulations (EIR)
2004 may be subject to exceptions, which the Authority is entitled to
apply to refuse requests in full or parts of requests.  Further
information around the exceptions that may be applied can be found via the
following link: 
[2]https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gui....

 

Please note, you do not have to specify whether you are making your
request under the FOI Act or under EIR.  The officer dealing with your
request will ensure it is processed under the relevant legislation during
the validation process. 

 

If you are requesting information in relation to a deceased person and
have not yet provided the required proof of eligibility and identity, your
request will not be processed until we received these.  Please provide one
of the following to confirm your eligibility to access the records:

 

·         Grant of probate and certified copy of the last will & testament

·         Letters of administration (if the deceased died intestate)

 

We will also require proof of your identity if you are requesting a
deceased persons records.  If you have not done so already, please provide
one of the following as proof of your identity:

 

·         Valid UK Driving Licence

·         Valid Current UK Passport

·         Birth certificate OR Certificate of Registry of Birth OR
Adoption certificate

 

Wakefield Council publish a number of Data Sets in relation to different
topics.  You may wish to access the following links to check whether the
information you require is already published.

 

Data Mill North

[3]https://datamillnorth.org/publisher/wake...

 

Any queries or concerns in relation to this matter should be sent to the
Senior Information Governance Officer, Information Management Team, County
Hall, Wakefield WF1 2QW or e-mailed to
[4][Wakefield City Council request email].

 

 

Yours sincerely

 

 

Corporate Information Governance Team,

Legal Services

Wakefield Council, County Hall, Wakefield WF1 2QW

Email: [5][Wakefield City Council request email]  

Tel: 01924 306112

 

References

Visible links
1. https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gui...
2. https://ico.org.uk/for-organisations/gui...
3. https://datamillnorth.org/publisher/wake...
4. mailto:[Wakefield City Council request email]
5. mailto:[Wakefield City Council request email]

freedomofinformation, Wakefield City Council

Dear Good Trip Digital,

FREEDOM OF INFORMATION ACT 2000 - REQUEST FOR INFORMATION 

Thank you for your email requesting information under the Freedom of
Information Act 2000 which we received on 8 April 2022.  It is our
intention to have the response delivered to you no later than 11 May 2022.

I would like to inform you that all requests submitted under the Freedom
of Information Act 2000 might be subject to exemption(s), which the
Authority is entitled to apply to refuse the request.

Any future correspondence you may have in relation to this matter should
be marked Private & Confidential and sent to the Senior Information
Governance Officer, Information Management Team, County Hall, Wakefield
WF1 2QW or e-mailed to [1][Wakefield City Council request email].

Yours sincerely

 

Senior Information Governance Officer

Corporate Information Governance Team,

Legal and Governance,

Wakefield Council, County Hall, Wakefield WF1 2QW

Email: [2][Wakefield City Council request email]

Tel: 01924 306112

 

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freedomofinformation, Wakefield City Council

Dear Good Trip Digital,

 

Freedom of Information Act 2000 - Request for Information

 

I am writing in respect of your recent enquiry for information held by the
Authority under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

 

The officer who is dealing with your request has asked that I seek some
clarification regarding your request.

 

In order that I may assist you in getting the information you require,
could you please clarify, with regard to Question 3, whether you wish our
response to include the COVID-19 Business Grants distributed by the
Council on behalf of Central Government, or if this question relates to
purely grants distributed from Council resources i.e. pertinent to the
responses for questions 1 and 2.

 

Please note that the request will be placed “on hold” until we receive a
response from you.

 

Thank you for your kind co-operation.

 

Yours sincerely

 

Senior Information Governance Officer

Information Governance Team

Legal and Governance

Wakefield Council

Tel: 01924 306112

E-mail: [1][email address]

 

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Good Trip Digital

Hello,

Thanks for getting back to me. Purely grants distributed from Council resources.

Yours sincerely,

Good Trip Digital

freedomofinformation, Wakefield City Council

Thank you very much for letting us know so promptly.

I will advise my colleagues accordingly and we will proceed on that basis.

Yours sincerely

Senior Information Governance Officer
Information Governance Team, Legal and Governance,
Wakefield Council, County Hall, Wakefield, WF1 2QW
E-mail: [email address]
Tel: 01924 306112

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freedomofinformation, Wakefield City Council

Dear Good Trip Digital,

Freedom of Information Act 2000 - Request for Information

I am writing in respect of your recent enquiry for information held by the
Authority under the provisions of the Freedom of Information Act.

Please find the response to your request below.

 1. What grants are available for start-ups and SMEs?

Businesses operating in the district can access a range of support to
assist them with start-up and growth. Funding, in particular grant based
funding, remains an important part of the business support offer, but in
recent years the amount of funding available has been limited. The recent
pandemic has further impacted grant offerings, particularly as much of the
financial support given to business has been grant funding to see eligible
businesses through the pandemic. Whilst the Local Authority does not
currently have any grant funding programmes live for start-ups, there are
other resources which can support start-ups access.

Individuals under 30 can access funding and support from the Princes Trust
to assist them with developing and starting a business. More information
can be found here;

[1]The Prince's Trust | Start Something (princes-trust.org.uk).

The Business Growth Programme is a regional support programme that
Wakefield businesses can access. Grants of between £10,000 and £50,000 are
available to support businesses looking to grow and create jobs. This
funding is limited to 20% of capital costs, to a maximum value of £50,000.
More information can be found here;

[2]Business Growth Programme - LEP | Business support and finance
(the-lep.com).

The Leeds City Region digital Enterprise Fund provides support for
businesses looking to invest in digital technology. Digital Growth
vouchers can be applied for, worth between £2,000 and £12,500. The
vouchers cover 50% of the anticipated project costs. More information can
be found here;

[3]Digital Growth Vouchers – Digital Enterprise.

2. Is there a cap or allowance on how much businesses can claim from
grants you currently offer?

Businesses are bound by the UK Government’s subsidy control regime. This
sets out the amount of subsidies (funding) a business can receive from
Government sources to enable economic benefits, whilst at the same time
limiting the amount so as to ensure that subsidies do not have harmful
impacts or give particular businesses an unfair competitive edge.

Exemptions are in place under the subsidy control regime, one such being
subsidies called as “minim financial interventions”. A business is
considered to have received minimal financial intervention where the total
amount received over a rolling three year financial period is less than
£315,000.

Please note that the Subsidy Control Regime covers a broad area of
exemptions. We would always advise any business looking to access public
funding to seek specialist advice from a Subsidy Control Regime specialist
in order to ensure compliance.

 3. How much money has your council paid out via business grants to local
businesses in the last five years?

Over the past 5 years, the Economic Growth Service within Wakefield
Council has supported businesses to access over £8m of funding from a
number of external sources. Please note, however, that much of this
funding has been sourced from external resources as part of national and
regional business support programmes. This funding is then passported
through to businesses through application processes. As such, this funding
has not come from the Council’s own resources. Agencies that have provided
this funding include;

• European Structural Investment Funds
• Department for work and Pensions
• Ministry of Housing Communities and Local Government
• West Yorkshire Combined Authority
• Leeds Local Enterprise Partnership

The above figure does not include the amount paid to businesses via the
various National Restriction Grants, which came about as a result of the
Covid-19 pandemic.

We have endeavoured to provide as much clarity as we can with regard to
your questions, and hope that the information provided is satisfactory
for your purposes.

Yours sincerely

 

Senior Information Governance Officer

Information Governance Team

Legal and Governance

Wakefield Council

Tel: 01924 306112

E-mail: [4][Wakefield City Council request email]

 

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We don't know whether the most recent response to this request contains information or not – if you are Good Trip Digital please sign in and let everyone know.