Scottish Enterprise and partners today advised that from 5pm on Tuesday 5 May 2020 the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund will pause to allow detailed assessment of initial applications. 

SOSE and partners welcome Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund boost from Scottish Government

Following Scottish Government’s announcement today that the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund is being doubled to £90m nationally - South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) along with its Team South of Scotland partners at Dumfries and Galloway (D&GC) and Scottish Borders Council (SBC) are welcoming the news.

The Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund provides grants to small and medium sized businesses which are potentially vital to Scotland’s economic future, or to the economy of local areas but which have been made vulnerable by this crisis. The fund remains paused for new applications while the two hardship funds for the newly self-employed and the creative, tourism and hospitality sectors remain open for applications.

Professor Russel Griggs OBE, Chair of SOSE said: “We very much welcome this news from Scottish Government. This is a hugely challenging time and as the new Enterprise Agency for the South of Scotland, we are committed to doing everything we can to provide support wherever it is needed and that this support is tailored to individual needs and circumstances as we go forward. We continue to encourage businesses to apply for the range of existing support and to make sure they seek help and support that is available.”

Interim Chief Executive of SOSE Nick Halfhide explained: “This is a very welcome announcement of a further boost in funds to be made available for small and medium sized businesses which are pivotal to the Scottish and indeed, our local economy. We are prioritising all our resources to support the Covid-19 response to support our local economy across the South and to also look ahead to the recovery.

“At this time, our focus is to process applications from both funds. We know this funding will prove a vital lifeline for many of our businesses and also be of particular value to some of the micro and SME businesses that are the lifeblood of many of our communities.

“We are reminding businesses that the Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund is still on hold with further announcements to be made in due course. All information and application process is via the Find Business Support website.”

Both Dumfries and Galloway Council and Scottish Borders Council continue to contribute to the economic response to covid-19 and are administering the Coronavirus Business Support Fund and the newly Self-Employed Hardship Fund. The second phase of the Business Support Fund went live this week and both funding application processes can be accessed via the Council’s websites.

Depute Leader of Dumfries and Galloway Council, Rob Davidson, said: “We continue to administer business grants and the Self-Employed Hardship Funding as quick as possible. As always, our priority is to make sure we do what’s necessary to release this much-needed additional money as quickly and as effectively as we can and we continue to ask for patience and understanding during this time. We also ask people to make sure they get in touch if they don’t know where to apply for support.”

Councillor Mark Rowley, Scottish Borders Council’s Executive Member for Business and Economic Development said: “It is our aim to make sure people know what support is available and can access that support quickly and easily. We know we are quite unique in the South of Scotland in terms of our economy and rurality, therefore it’s going to be important for us to take stock of what the landscape looks like now and going forward. This extra funding we hope will have an impact on that but this is going to be a long journey of which partnership working will be absolutely key.”

The Self-Employed Hardship Fund and Coronavirus Business Support Fund is being administered by the two local authorities in D&G and Scottish Borders via the following:

The Creative, Tourism and Hospitality Enterprises Hardship Fund and Pivotal Enterprise Resilience Fund is being administered nationally in conjunction with Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE) and South of Scotland Enterprise (SOSE) via the following:

For those who are still not eligible for these new national funds or any of the other existing funds or grants can contact us for further support