The City's response to PerthNow about the Business Grants program, 29.5.26
Question: How many years has the business grants fund run for?
Answer: Since 2021. The City has acquitted 167 successful applications in that time, with $512,884.12 in funded projects delivered.
Question: The website references 2023 – does it run every year including 2024 and 2025?
Answer: It has run every year since 2021.
Question: What is the intention of the business grants?
Answer:
- Empowering micro, small and medium-sized businesses
- Grants are intended to help businesses invest in areas such as professional training and development, digital technology and cybersecurity improvements, and innovative or growth-focused initiatives
- Examples of grant expenditure may include short courses, new equipment or hardware purchases, digital upgrades such as website development, or innovation and incubator-style projects. The grant program is open to grant requests of varying monetary amounts, with each assessed on individual merit
- The City is proud of the Business Grants Program delivered by the Economic Development team, which supports local business capability, economic activity, and business growth within the City.
Question: Why is it targeting smaller scale businesses?
Answer:
- The program targets smaller scale businesses to help build local business capability, support growth, and strengthen economic activity within the City
- Small businesses are often deeply connected to the local community and can respond quickly to local needs and opportunities
- Supporting them can help encourage investment, innovation, business sustainability, activating centres and main streets, and long-term economic growth within the City
- This helps strengthen the diversity and resilience of the local economy
- The grants are intentionally structured around achievable six-month projects to ensure funding can deliver practical, measurable outcomes within a reasonable timeframe
- Typically, small local businesses are more agile and better positioned to deliver short term projects within the program timeframe.