This Technical Note will be published on the Council’s website following circulation to Members. Its contents may be disclosed or shared outwith the Council.
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The purpose of this Technical Note is to update Elected Members on work being undertaken to utilise residual funds held by BLS for a localised small business loan fund for East Dunbartonshire.
PNCA Report PNCA/076/20/DG agreed that Officers would work with BLS to determine solutions for residual European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) funding from the first phase of the BLS loan programme. East Dunbartonshire has circa £130,000 of residual ERDF funding in BLS, which currently can only be used for loan purposes. Local authorities can however draw down any remaining unspent residual ERDF funds and use for general economic purposes from December 2023.
A small loan will be made available to East Dunbartonshire businesses and be administered through BLS. Once open East Dunbartonshire businesses will be able apply to BLS via an online application process.
The loan will be available on a very low interest basis. The loan will be targeted to all businesses operating in East Dunbartonshire. The loan will be flexible in what it can support, for example helping cover investment in things such as equipment, business development and innovation, and in some cases may be linked to projects to assist with recovery from the impacts of COVID-19 on the business. Proposed loan sums are to be £1k - £5k, therefore it is anticipated that applications will come from smaller businesses.
BLS will manage the loan scheme and administer the applications. Officers from the Council’s Business Support team will support diligence and appraisal work undertaken when BLS process applications. BLS will process the payment of the loan funds to the applicants and collecting the repayment instalments thereafter. As with other BLS programmes, the Council will be provided with update reports on loan take up, repayments and any defaults.
In light of recent Scottish COVID-19 business support grant funding in response to the Omicron variant, the Council’s Business Support Team have been prioritising the administration of a number of new grant schemes. The timescales to launch the local BLS loan are therefore still to be confirmed, but it is expected it will be open later Spring/ early Summer 2022. Officers will continue to work with colleagues at BLS to prepare the loan for opening later in 2022.
Should Elected Members have specific questions relating to the above, BLS or Business Support more generally, they can contact David Gear – Place & Business Development Manager (david.gear@eastdunbarton.gov.uk).
