Hard hit Highland wedding businesses urged to apply to Covid-support fund
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Highlands and Islands wedding businesses are being encouraged to apply to a £25 million fund to help them deal with the impact of Covid-19.
The Scottish Government Scottish Wedding Industry Fund opens for applications this Thursday, January 28, and has added a further £10 million to the £15 million announced in December in recognition of the impact anti-Covid restrictions have had on the sector.
Scotland's finance minister Kate Forbes said: “This £25 million fund will ensure one-off grants of up to £25,000 reach eligible business as quickly as possible and there is no equivalent fund in other parts of the UK.
“The pandemic has had a severe impact on Scotland’s wedding sector, and we know that the current restrictions, while entirely necessary in our fight against Covid-19, continue to take their toll on the sector. I’d encourage all those who think they are eligible to find out more about applying – we want to help as many businesses survive this pandemic as we can”
The Scottish Wedding Industry Fund is open to eligible businesses whose main income comes from the wedding sector, offering grants of between £5000 and £25,000 depending on turnover. The fund is being provided by the Scottish Government and administered by a partnership of Scottish Enterprise, South of Scotland Enterprise and Highlands and Islands Enterprise (HIE).
Eligible businesses are being encouraged to ensure they can provide evidence including a bank statement from the last three months, a bank statement showing the trading position before December 31 2019 and evidence of pre-Covid turnover, such as the last full year audited or unaudited accounts, or a tax return.
If a business has not been trading a full year and does not have these documents, they should provide whatever documentation they can.
In addition, some eligible applicants will need to provide evidence of Unique Taxpayers Reference (UTR), such as an HMRC document, and for Trusts a copy of their Deeds of Trust.
Carroll Buxton, deputy chief executive at HIE, said: “The Highlands and Islands has always been a popular destination for weddings and the wedding industry is an integral part of our tourism and hospitality sector. With restrictions in place over the past year, many businesses whose main income is from weddings will have been hit hard by cancellations.
"The Scottish Wedding Industry Fund is about supporting those businesses through the current difficulties and on to recovery. We look forward to working with our partner agencies in maximising the benefits of the fund across the whole country.”
The Scottish Wedding Industry Alliance’s (SWIA) co-founder Caroline Inchyra is also calling on the industry to make use of the funding opportunity.
“We must thank the Scottish Government for recognising the wedding industry as a vital sector in the Scottish economy, and the enterprise agencies for working with us to ensure this fund has as much impact as possible," she said.
“This funding will give renewed hope to the many businesses who have been unable to operate in a viable way for almost a year.”
Businesses are encouraged to visit https://findbusinesssupport.gov.scot/ for further details including full eligibility criteria.
