Mid Suffolk Town Centre Shopfront Scheme

Mid Suffolk District Council have launched a new grant scheme open to local businesses to apply for grant funding to help improve their existing premises.

Priority areas include town centre shops or commercial properties within Mid Suffolk, including:

• Eye​
• Debenham ​
• Stowupland​
• Elmswell​
• Woolpit​
• Thurston​
• Needham market ​
• Great Blakenham ​
• Claydon​
• Stowmarket – see specific criteria

If you are not in one of these towns or villages, and would like to check eligibility, please get in touch with us.

Funding priorities

Priorities of the scheme include making vacant units more attractive to new occupiers, enhancing the aesthetic appeal and key frontages within town centres, encouraging increased footfall, and providing a vibrant and mixed retail offer.

The fund will support shop improvements with a focus on high-visibility frontage works, including:

• rebranding shops with new signage
• vinyl graphics and signage
• canopies
• cladding
• accessibility improvements
• lighting
• new windows/doors
• shutters e.g. replacing old external shutters with internal systems (external shutters are not eligible for grant funding)
• external security or reinstatement of traditional or historic features that have been lost

Please refer to the application Guidance Notes for more information on the scheme.

Mid Suffolk Town Centre Shopfront Scheme        APPLY HERE

How Much Could I Get?

The maximum grant is £10,000 per property.

Each application will have a 40% match funding requirement, which can be decreased in exceptional circumstances.  This means you must be able to match any funding that you are applying for with your own funds.

All payments are made at the end of the process; therefore, you will need to fund the project fully by yourself before any reimbursements are made. Funding cannot be used to pay for items purchased prior to the grant being determined.

Important Information

If you are applying for any physical upgrades or improvements that require planning permission or building control permissions, grants will only be approved if the relevant permissions have already been provided.

Please be aware that all applicants are expected to complete the subsidy declaration within the application form

Enquiries in relation to the redevelopment of empty properties in Stowmarket should see Stowmarket Gateway Fund for more information.

For any additional queries about this new grant scheme, please email our Economic development team