A total of £300,000 has been awarded to 18 local businesses for innovative initiatives that support growth and help develop the borough’s green economy.
The money has been made available through Kingston Council’s new Recovery, Adaptation, and Innovation Support for Enterprise (RAISE) grant scheme. The funding will support the borough’s post-pandemic economic recovery and help take climate action.
The successful initiatives range from funding staff bicycles and e-bicycles to allow carers to attend calls in a carbon-neutral manner, to saving honeybee trees which otherwise would have faced destruction.
Councillor Andreas Kirsch, Leader of Kingston Council and ward representative for Chessington South, said: “At a time when the impact of the pandemic is still real for many businesses and tackling climate change has taken on an even greater urgency in our lives, the new RAISE grant scheme has been designed to help boost recovery and generate opportunities that will benefit individual businesses and stimulate the growth of our green economy.
“Our local area has never been so important. We’re committed to creating a future that enables economic growth, that’s digital, smart, environmentally friendly and has the infrastructure needed to support living and working locally.”
The RAISE grant scheme is part of the council’s drive to create opportunities for businesses of all shapes and sizes to thrive and harness the spirit of innovation across the borough. More than 70 applications were received from right across the borough ranging from early-stage businesses and inventions in development, to mature businesses looking to innovate.
Businesses were invited to respond to a range of criteria. These included what they needed to do to recover strongly from the past 18 months, how they could adapt to new working conditions and how they could respond to new challenges and opportunities such as tech advances and changing customer needs. They were also asked to consider how they could innovate through new products, services, or fresh thinking to boost performance or resource efficiency. The successful grant recipients were selected based on the overall strength of their proposals, particularly in terms of their likely impact on growth and jobs, along with their green credentials.
The full list of successful applicants is:
- Alpha Phones Ltd, Surbiton
- Aztec Event Services Ltd, Chessington
- BeesMAX Limited, Chessington
- Chadwicks Kingston Limited, Kingston
- Efficiencyfit Ltd, Kingston
- Emma Egerton, Surbiton
- Geodome Ltd, Kingston
- Interactual Ltd, Kingston
- IN-THEBOX.CO.UK Ltd., Kingston
- My Homecare Kingston Ltd, New Malden
- Obon Foods Ltd, Kingston
- Omarketing Limited, Surbiton
- PM Construction and Insulation Ltd, Chessington
- Shinealight Ltd, Kingston
- Spicy Pizza Ltd, Chessington
- Surrey Honey Farm Limited, Chessington
- The Garden Catering Ltd, Chessington
- JNDC Ltd, Kingston