Grant funding and advice are now available through Cumberland Council’s UK Shared Prosperity Fund (UKSPF) and Rural England Prosperity Fund (REPF)

Grant funding and advice are available to SME businesses in all sectors, throughout the Cumberland Council area (i.e. the previous Allerdale, Carlisle and Copeland areas), delivered by Cumbria Business Growth Hub, the Chamber’s business support arm, working in partnership with The Farmer Network.

Delivery runs until 20th February 2026. Grant spend must be completed and claimed by 31st January 2026 at the latest.

We may have a small amount of funding available through late underspend on approved grants which has opened up the opportunity for us to accept one stage applications for equipment grants. There is no guarantee at this stage funds will be available.

Grants may be available up to a maximum of £5,000 at 50% funding. Purchases would need to be made and claimed by 31^st January 2026.

Deadline for submission is 12noon on Friday 12^th December with decisions communicated w/c 15^th December.

You can download the required paperwork below – we can only accept original signatures on all paperwork (scanned signatures are not acceptable). Adviser support may be available to assist with any submissions – please advise if support is needed.

Registration form

Subsidy control declaration

Grant application

Grant guidance – exceptionally for this phase there are minor changes and those which affect applicants are:

• this is a 1 stage not a two stage process ie no expression of interest
• the maximum grant is £5k

All completed applications should be emailed to info@cumbriagrowthhub.co.uk by the deadline with the subject: Cumberland equipment grant application. Applications received after the deadline may not be reviewed.

Advice and support to businesses increasing survival rates will focus on providing one-to-one time with one of our business adviser team alongside a range of workshops/programmes covering, for example:

• Exporting – introduction to exporting, why consider exporting, making the most of opportunities and what opportunities exporting can bring to a business
• Business Essentials –understanding numbers (cash flow forecasting, budgeting, P&L, pricing and profit) and a clear strategy in terms of sales and marketing to bring cash into the business
• Business/survival planning
• Finance and funding delivered through our Access to Finance service
• Crisis cash management and credit control
• Leadership resilience and mental readiness
• Market and customer reconnection and retention
• Cost control and efficiency
• Building business resilience including pivoting/diversification
• Supply chain – new opportunities (bidding/tendering)
• Cyber

Further details for workshops/programmes will be added soon.

To request an adviser please email info@cumbriagrowthhub.co.uk.

While all of the above is for any business (including farms), we also have a range of workshops specifically aimed at farmers. These are on various farming related topics and are delivered by The Farmer Network.