Government shuts ‘Help to Grow’ doorway for SMEs
The authorities has disclosed the termination of the “Help to Grow: Digital” scheme, which gave funding to small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to purchase know-how.
Firms now have less than two months to apply for funding beneath the Help to Grow: Digital scheme.
A press release from the Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) mentioned the programme would shut to new enterprise purposes for reductions on 2 February 2023.
The division said that whereas the scheme has supported companies to develop, take-up has been decrease than anticipated so it has determined to give attention to “other support mechanisms for small businesses”.
The programme was designed to give 100,000 SMEs vouchers price up to £5,000 to cowl up to 50% of the prices of shopping for pre-approved software program. Fewer than 1,000 vouchers have been redeemed, in accordance to BEIS.
TechUK expressed its displeasure on the announcement, which it mentioned meant SMEs “have, at a crucial time, lost key funding to adopt new digital technologies and boost productivity”.
The know-how business physique went on to describe the choice as a “disappointing outcome”.
As a key supporter of the Help to Grow: Digital scheme, TechUK mentioned it had labored carefully with the federal government on the launch of the scheme, in addition to offering recommendation.
It mentioned this recommendation resulted in improvements to the scheme, which included the adoption of e-commerce software program and an growth of the eligibility threshold to entry the scheme. Taken collectively, these meant 1.2 million SMEs turned eligible for help, in accordance to TechUK.
The IT business physique additionally provided evidence on the state of the scheme to the House of Commons BEIS Select Committee on 17 May 2022, with Neil Ross, affiliate director, coverage, at Tech UK, offering testimony.
In July 2022, Antony Walker, TechUK’s deputy CEO, mentioned: “Help to Grow: Digital has confirmed to be an essential addition to the federal government’s help for UK companies, with the potential to ship actual productiveness change by supporting SMEs in adopting productivity-enhancing applied sciences equivalent to CRM, accounting, and now e-commerce.
“TechUK and our members welcome the announcement that now more SMEs will be able to reap the benefits of the scheme by lowering the eligibility criteria to include companies with fewer than five employees. These changes are certainly a step in the right direction towards meeting the goal of supporting 100,000 small businesses adopting technology.”
In July 2021, when the scheme was launched, enterprise minister Lord Callanan mentioned the federal government had backed enterprise all through the pandemic and “is now looking to build for the future”.
He added: “Tech is fundamental to our vision of a dynamic and revitalised economy and I would like to invite IT providers to seize this fantastic opportunity to support UK SMEs with their high-quality software and help us turbocharge UK small businesses.”
When the scheme was introduced in March 2021, within the Budget, by then chancellor Rishi Sunak, it was promised it will final three years.
