Council support
Your local council may also offer financial support. Please check your council or local authority’s website where your business is located for funding and other support programmes.
Funding – loans and grants
British Business Bank – Government-owned business development bank dedicated to making finance markets work better for smaller businesses. Offer start up loans, finance for scaling up, recovery loan scheme, life sciences investment programme to name a few and the finance hub.
Discover British Business Bank
Fleximize – If you’re a sole trader, you might come up against a few barriers when finding suitable business funding. So alternative lenders, like Fleximize, might be your solution.
Award-Winning Business Loans Provider UK – Up to £500K – Fleximize
Fredericks Foundation – Provides access to small business loans to people excluded from mainstream credit.
Fredericks Foundation – Finance for Social Impact
FSE Group – Provides business loans and equity investment from £25k to £5m to high growth businesses looking to expand their operations.
Funding Circle – Offers unsecured loans up to £500,000.
Fast, Affordable Small Business Finance | Funding Circle
Go Digital – Free digital business support for SMEs to learn how to better use digital tools to identify business opportunities and help their business grow. There is also a grant of up to £500 to implement a digital action plan, which could include training. Applications are on a first come first served basis. Please note that there is currently a waiting list for this programme.
Go Digital funding programme – Norfolk County Council
Growth Guarantee Scheme – The successor scheme to the Recovery Loan Scheme, the Growth Guarantee Scheme (GGS) launched on 1 July 2024 and is designed to support access to finance for UK small businesses as they look to invest and grow.
Growth Guarantee Scheme (GGS) | British Business Bank
Merchant Cash Advance UK – Finance for SMEs in the UK with no fixed payments, fixed terms or security required.
Merchant Cash Advance – UK – GOV.UK
Funding – Investments
Anglia Capital Group – A private network of over 60 angel investors from across the East of England. As well as screening companies for our own private investors, which we present at pitching events throughout the year, we also manage the screening process for the New Anglia Capital Co-investment fund.
Angel Investors | Anglia Capital Group | England
BGF Investment Management Limited – BGF is the most active equity investor in the UK and Ireland. We exist to provide long-term, minority investment and value creation support to growing companies.
BGF – Growth Funding for Ambitious Businesses
Fintech Growth Fund – FinTech Growth Fund enjoys access to differentiated opportunities enabled by the partners’ deep connectivity with strategic capital and the Fintech & Financial Services ecosystem.
Investing Women Angels – We exist for the advancement of female founded and female led businesses, through investment, community, and education, and to build women’s involvement in investing.
Funding and support for businesses and specific sectors
Agri-TechE – There are several places offering funding for agri-tech developments. We include the latest calls on this link and try and signpost other opportunities.
Agri-Tech Funding Finder – Agri-TechE
Arts Council – Invests in art and culture for a lasting return. Looking for organisations, artists, events, initiatives, and others to apply for funding and help to achieve its strategy, Let’s Create.
Our open funds | Arts Council England
Chartered Institute of Horticulture – to provide information and links to organisations that provide grant aid to individual horticulturists.
Bursaries and grants – Chartered Institute of Horticulture
Countryside Stewardships Grant Finder – Countryside Stewardship grants from Rural Payments Agency and Natural England grant finder
Countryside Stewardship grant finder – GOV.UK
Creative Enterprise Business Builder – Grant initiative designed to support companies who work in moving image for storytelling, spanning film television, games, animation and immersive industries. With grants of up to £2,500, beneficiaries will be able to work with a consultant to build meaningful connections and create opportunities for business growth.
Creative Enterprise Business Builder – Creative UK
Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs – DAERA offers a wide range of grants and funding to support local farming, fisheries, rural business, communities, and environmental NGOs.
Grants and Funding | Department of Agriculture, Environment and Rural Affairs
Farming in protected landscapes – Farmers and land managers in the Coast & Heaths and Areas of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONBs) are being urged to apply for grant support for projects which support nature, the climate, people, and places.
Farming in Protected Landscapes
Farming in Protected Landscapes – Suffolk & Essex Coast & Heaths National Landscape
Farming Investment Fund DEFRA – Find out what funding is available for farmers, land managers and foresters.
Funding for farmers, growers and land managers – GOV.UK
HSBC Sustainable Farming Pathway – Under the scheme, farming businesses with the LEAF Marque certification, or who complete a LEAF Sustainable Farming Review (LSFR), are eligible for discounted loan arrangement fees on applicable products.
HSBC Sustainable Farming Pathway | HSBC UK
Made Smarter – Advanced manufacturing and engineering SMEs in the East of England are to receive funding and bespoke support through the Made Smarter Adoption East of England programme, which is to be overseen by Norfolk County Council.
Made Smarter to boost the region’s manufacturing sector – NAAME
National Lottery Heritage Fund – The Heritage Fund for projects that connect people and communities to the national, regional, and local heritage of the UK
Funding | The National Lottery Heritage Fund
Tech East – Tech cluster based in the East, community of start-ups, scaleups and late-stage tech businesses. Free to join for tech support.
TG Escapes (educational funding) – We specialise in creating bespoke, sustainable modular buildings for the education sector. From nurseries to colleges, we create cost-effective, environmentally conscious building solutions that align with your educational and financial needs. When looking to secure the funding you need for a new educational building there are several avenues to consider, and some key resources to make use of.
Modular School Building Finance Options | Resources For Your School
Funding to enable Clean Growth
Clean Growth Fund – Empowering early stage entrepreneurs with expert capital to tackle the climate crisis
Empowering early stage clean tech entrepreneurs – Clean Growth Fund
Offshore Wind Growth Partnership (OWGP) – Supporting UK supply chain growth, productivity, and competitiveness
Home – Offshore Wind Growth Partnership
Sustainable Farming Incentive DEFRA – Pays farmers to adopt and maintain sustainable farming practises that can protect and improve the environment. What farmers need to know to get paid under the Sustainable Farming Incentive (SFI), how to apply for funding and how to manage your agreement.
Sustainable Farming Incentive: guidance for applicants and agreement holders – GOV.UK
Funding and support for innovation and innovative companies
Barclays Eagle Labs – Entrepreneurial network supporting ambitious startups and scaleups. Their mission is to connect the UK’s entrepreneurial ecosystem through their networks, support and expertise, tailored learning and programmes, to help businesses innovate and grow.
Connect, innovate, grow | Barclays Eagle Labs
Defence and Security Accelerator (DASA) – We find and fund exploitable innovation to support UK defence and security quickly and effectively, and support UK prosperity.
Innovate UK – Innovate UK Business Growth, tailored support that accelerates the growth of ambitious innovation-focused businesses
Scale your company with Innovate UK Business Growth
Innovate UK Knowledge Transfer Partnership – We bring together forward-thinking businesses and expert academics to tackle strategic innovation challenges to deliver economic, societal, or environmental outcomes.
Home – Knowledge Transfer Partnerships
Innovation Grant Mentoring Project – Do you have an idea worthy of Innovate UK funding, or need help with your application? Get mentoring and bid writing support to help you secure the funding you need to develop your project or idea. Innovation funding can help you take your business to the next level, whether you’re looking to develop a new product or expand into a new market.
Innovation grant mentoring project – Norfolk County Council
Tax reliefs available for innovative companies
Creatives Tax reliefs – Creative Industry tax reliefs for Corporation Tax.
Creative industry tax reliefs for Corporation Tax – GOV.UK
Patent Box – Use the Patent Box to reduce your Corporation Tax on profits
Use the Patent Box to reduce your Corporation Tax on profits – GOV.UK
R&D Tax Credits – Claiming Research and Development tax reliefs.
Claiming Research and Development (R&D) tax relief – GOV.UK
Venture capital schemes
These schemes are intended to incentivise investment in smaller, higher risk, unquoted trading companies that would otherwise struggle to access finance for growth by providing a range of income tax and capital gains tax reliefs to individual investors.
Apply for advance assurance on a venture capital scheme – GOV.UK
Funding platforms
Pay if Forward from Crowdfunder – Free to use crowdfunding service, helping businesses to source financial support.
Pay it Forward | Crowdfunder.co.uk
Spacehive – Funding platform for ideas that bring local places to life. Can match funds raised through its partner funders.
The home of community fundraising
Funding opportunities for charities, communities, and social enterprises
Community Action Norfolk – Provides guidance and support to charities and community organisations. It produces a monthly funding newsletter and can help find funding.
Community Action Suffolk – Helping the Voluntary, Community, Faith & Social Enterprise sector in Suffolk.
Home – Community Action Suffolk
Community Shares – Advice, support and booster funding for community projects looking at community investment options.
Community Shares | Co-operatives UK
Good Finance – Listings of funding sources and funding advice for charities and social enterprises. Be aware that not all the funding sources listed may be up to date.
Google Ad Grants – Helps non-profits share their causes with the world.
Google Ad Grants – Free Google Ads for nonprofits
The Community Pub Business Support Program – The Plunkett Foundation offer finance packages of loans and grants to communities that are considering taking on the responsibility for and ownership of their local pub, through purchase or long-term lease.
The Community Pub Business Support Program – StartupXs
Support with green initiatives
Automotive Transformation Fund (ATF) – The fund provides support for large-scale, capital-focused projects in key electric vehicle technology areas
Expression of Interest (EOI) competition – Advanced Propulsion Centre
Energy Saving Trust – Whether you’re looking for advice on strategy, helping households with energy efficiency or are interested in getting your product or technology verified, we’re here to help.
HM Government – Almost £5 billion of funding is available to help UK businesses become greener as part of the government’s commitment to reach net zero emissions by 2050.
Find funding to help your business become greener – GOV.UK
NatWest Green Loans – A Green Loan from NatWest aims to help eligible UK businesses finance business assets to support their sustainability ambitions, such as solar panels, electric vehicles, or heat pumps on commercial buildings, that fall within the eligible list.
Green loans | NatWest Business Bank
SME Climate Hub – commit today to future-proof your business, companies can sign up.
The Workplace Charging Scheme – If you’re a UK business, charity or public authority and looking to install charging stations for electric cars at work for staff, fleet vehicles and visitors, you could be eligible for the Workplace Charging Scheme.