Business support and advice

Business Rates

Depending on the property you occupy and/or your business sector you may be eligible for a relief or exemption. For more details, see Get help paying your business rates.

Grow London Local

Grow London Local offers a range of support schemes and practical resources to help you start, sustain and grow your business.

The RAC

The RAC have created the Ultimate Guide to saving on fuel.

Employment Allowance

The UK Government increased the Employment Allowance from £4,000 to £5,000 from 6 April to help SMEs.

Employment Allowance is a tax relief which allows eligible businesses and charities to reduce their National Insurance contributions each year.

Class 1 savings can be made each time there is a payroll run until £5,000 has been reached or the tax year has ended (whichever is sooner).

The Government estimates that around 50,000 businesses will benefit from the increase.

To check if you’re eligible, visit GOV.UK – employment allowance.

The Government’s Energy Bills Discount scheme runs from 1 April 2023 to 31 March 2024. This scheme replaces the Energy Bill Relief Scheme which supported businesses and organisations between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023.

The South East London Community Energy co-operative (Selce) is a community energy group tackling climate change and fuel poverty across south east London. It offers impartial advice services to help businesses navigate the transition to clean energy.

The Carbon Trust energy benchmark tool helps small and medium-sized businesses assess typical energy use in their sector.

It covers the following sectors:

• hospitality
• office-based
• manufacturing
• retail 
• leisure

The Carbon Trust also has other online tools to help businesses reduce their energy consumption and costs.

See Carbon footprint calculator.

Ofgem provides advice on how to get help if your business can’t afford its energy bills, as well as general energy advice.

The Recovery Loan Scheme, which launched in April 2021 to help businesses recovering from the pandemic, will now run until 2024.

Small and medium-sized businesses can currently apply for the Recovery Loan Scheme. This scheme helps them access loans and finance to recover after the pandemic and transition period.

Up to £2 million is available per business group.

The actual amount offered and the terms are at the discretion of participating lenders.

The government guarantees 70% of the finance to the lender.

As the borrower, you are always 100% liable for the debt.

Loans are available through a network of accredited lenders, listed on the British Business Bank’s website.

Business Debtline is a charity providing free and independent debt advice over the phone and online.

It also provides a range of debt advice factsheets on topics such as:

• business rates
• business debts
• managing business finances
• dealing with creditors
• debt solutions

Money Advice Trust offers free SMEs debt advice, tax, business rates, budgeting, creditors court action support.

Step Change are debt experts offering help with debt problems. They offer free, flexible debt advice based on a comprehensive assessment of your situation and provide practical help and support for however long it’s needed.

The Hackney Green Energy Fund is a capital funding pot open to businesses who want to deliver energy efficiency improvements to their premises. Grants of up to £10,000 are available for applicants who meet the requirements set out in this prospectus.

Funding is for investment in business premises only. Eligible works are any recommended actions from a green energy audit undertaken by Hackney Impact, or other independent equivalent standard energy assessment, that will result in a material improvement in the energy efficiency of the premises such as:

• installation of energy-efficient LED lighting to replace older, inefficient systems
• upgrading insulation (e.g. walls, roofs, floors) to reduce heat loss and improve temperature regulation within the premises
• installing energy-efficient windows (double or triple glazing) to prevent heat escape
• implementing smart heating controls or upgrading heating systems to improve energy efficiency
• switching to renewable energy sources like installing solar panels on the premises
• replacing or upgrading HVAC systems to more energy-efficient models, reducing both energy consumption and operating costs
• retrofitting machinery or equipment to energy-saving models, particularly in manufacturing or production processes

View the Hackney Green Energy Fund: award of grants and funding agreement delegated powers report (google doc).

During 2022, 330 Hackney businesses benefited from a comprehensive suite of business support. The aim of the support was to build back resilience within our small business community.

The funding saw 159 local businesses share £2 million in grants between April 2022 and March 2023. This enabled projects to make businesses greener, more inclusive and more resilient.

These programs reached 237,000 people. They also brought in over £2m in outside investment for Hackney and spent £500,000 locally.

Local businesses received over 3,000 hours of targeted business development and training support. This help, made possible by a £500,000 investment, enabled them to start-up, grow, or improve their resilience.

See Hackney’s Business Support Programme – End of programme report (PDF 10.7mb).

The high streets and town centres fund is complete.

See Hackney’s High Street and Town Centres Fund – Insights and impact report (PDF 26.5mb).

The report highlights some of the benefits of a £500,000 council fund. We developed it as part of a wider programme of council-led business support to help local businesses following the coronavirus pandemic.

The fund helped 39 local businesses, with a further £269,600 spent with 254 local suppliers, £120,000 extra funding brought into Hackney, resulting in:

• more connected businesses – with 154,000 people engaged with
• more resilient businesses – with 92% feeling more resilient
• growing businesses – with 82% seeing increased footfall
• greener businesses – with 35.55 tonnes of carbon saved per month

In partnership with PRD, we delivered the Hackney Central Impact and Ideas fund.

The fund supported businesses in delivering innovative and inspiring projects that complement the Hackney Central Plan. This enabled local businesses to invest in and realise their own ideas to increase their economic and environmental resilience, as well as improving the town centre as a whole.

The fund:

• puts businesses at the forefront of delivering the new Hackney Central plan
• encourages business recovery and resilience by supporting innovation and the testing of new ideas
• supports the development of stronger relationships between businesses, us and the wider community in Hackney Central
• supports micro and small businesses to be inclusive, innovative and resilient

Read the fund guidance (PDF 829kb)

We funded a total of £542,239.80 to 23 businesses in Hackney to deliver projects that support local businesses and organisations to play a fuller role in shaping the future of Hackney Central.

During 2022, we worked with funded local businesses to support project delivery and understand the impact of the fund.

For more information about what was delivered and how Hackney businesses and residents benefited from the fund, see our HCII Celebration and Learning report (PDF 32.1mb).

We want to involve, support and enable local businesses to accelerate the shift to a net zero carbon world.

Resource scarcity and environmental degradation, alongside climate change, are some of the greatest global challenges we face.

One of the opportunities we are exploring is how we can involve, support and enable businesses in Hackney to be part of the circular economy.

We’ve commissioned a survey of businesses and held two workshops in Hackney to help us all understand the circular economy in Hackney and the future needs of businesses.

We will use recommendations and feedback from businesses to shape the future of business support offers in this area, as well as the developing policy work on our green commitments.

This is part of our wider mission to rebuild a Greener Hackney.

Learn more about what we’re doing to support local businesses to transition to circularity on the Hackney Business Network.