269 live UK business funding opportunities

Department for Education

For non-levy employers, government pays 95% of apprenticeship training costs — and 100% for small employers taking on eligible young apprentices — plus £1,000 incentive payments in some cases.

British Business Bank

Successor to the Recovery Loan Scheme: government-backed guarantee enabling term loans, overdrafts and asset finance up to £2m for smaller UK businesses through accredited lenders.

Department for Energy Security and Net Zero

The Boiler Upgrade Scheme provides grants to encourage property owners to replace existing fossil fuel heating with more efficient, low carbon heating systems including air source heat pumps, ground source heat pumps and, in limited circumstances, biomass boilers. You can get:£7,500 off the cost and installation of an air source heat pump£7,500 off the cost and installation of a ground source heat pump£5,000 off the cost and installation of a biomass boilerThese grants help property owners overc

West Midlands Combined Authority

Regional business-support service for West Midlands SMEs with funded advice and periodic capital/revenue grant programmes (historically £2.5k-£100k waves) for growth, decarbonisation and digital projects.

Development Bank of Wales

Flexible loans (and equity) from £1,000 to £10m for Welsh businesses — micro loans, growth capital, property and succession finance with patient terms.

Greater Manchester Combined Authority / Growth Company

Fully funded advice plus periodic match-funded grants (commonly £1k-£10k waves) for Greater Manchester SMEs covering growth, digital, net-zero and manufacturing improvement.

Department for Science, Innovation and Technology

Vouchers worth up to £4,500 for SMEs (and homes) in eligible rural areas to cover the cost of installing gigabit-capable broadband.

HM Revenue & Customs

Reduces corporation tax to an effective 10% on profits attributable to patented inventions and certain other IP rights.

HM Revenue & Customs

Corporation tax relief on qualifying R&D expenditure. Merged scheme gives a 20% above-the-line credit (~15-16% net); loss-making R&D-intensive SMEs can claim enhanced support (ERIS) worth up to ~27p per £1 of qualifying spend.

Invest Northern Ireland

Supports Northern Ireland businesses at every R&D stage, from feasibility to development — typical intervention 40-50% for SMEs.

Innovate UK

Funds a high-calibre graduate (Associate) plus academic team embedded in your business for 12-36 months to deliver a strategic innovation project. SMEs typically pay ~33% of project costs.

Made Smarter (North West)

Match-funded grants (typically up to £20k, 50% intervention) plus fully funded digital transformation advice for manufacturing SMEs adopting industrial digital technologies (robotics, IIoT, data & AI, additive).

Made Smarter (regional programmes)

Regional Made Smarter programmes (West Midlands, Yorkshire & Humber, North East, East Midlands and others) offering funded digital advice and match-funded technology grants for manufacturing SMEs; amounts vary by region.

Office for Zero Emission Vehicles

The Workplace Charging Scheme provides support for organisations towards the cost of installing up to 40 electric vehicle chargepoint sockets at their sites.The scheme covers up to 75% of the total costs of the purchase and installation of EV chargepoints (including VAT), capped at a maximum of:£500 per socket40 sockets across all sites per applicant – for instance, if you want to install them at 40 sites, you will have 1 socket available per siteIt is open to eligible: businessescharities publi

Department for Transport

Point-of-sale discount on eligible new electric vans (up to £2,500 small / £5,000 large vans) and significantly more for trucks; applied by the dealer.

Scottish Enterprise

Discretionary capital/job-creation grants for projects in Scottish assisted areas that create or safeguard jobs — award scales with capex and employment impact.

Department for Education

Flexible 16-week technical training (digital, engineering, construction, green skills) where employers contribute only 10% (SMEs) or 30% (large) of the cost to upskill existing staff.

Business Wales / Welsh Government

Welsh Government support for businesses to develop, implement and commercialise new products and processes, co-funding R&D stages from feasibility through to exploitation.

Scottish Enterprise

Supports feasibility studies (up to 70% of costs) and R&D projects (up to 35%) with high commercial potential for Scottish SMEs.

British Business Bank

Personal loans of £500-£25,000 per director (up to £100,000 per business) at fixed 6% interest for businesses trading under 3 years, with free mentoring.

Department for Culture, Media and Sport

Funding strands (international distribution typically up to £50k-£150k, co-production up to £300k) boosting international commercialisation of UK screen content.

UK Export Finance

Government guarantee (typically 80%) on working-capital facilities from participating banks to support exporters' trade cycles — frees cash to fulfil international orders.

West Yorkshire Combined Authority

Funded advice and periodic grants for West Yorkshire SMEs spanning productivity, digital and decarbonisation themes.

365 Finance

Finance for SMEs in the UK with no fixed payments, fixed terms or security required. The advance is repaid as a percentage of future card sales.