Bedford Cost of Living Support - The South East Midlands Growth Hub

Price rises are affecting businesses, but there are plenty of things you can do to help manage this. A wide range of different resources and programmes are available to help you reduce costs, increase the efficiency of your business and boost your resilience, as well as helping you maintain the mental and physical wellbeing of yourself and your staff members.

Building Resilience

There is a range of business support available to businesses in Bedford to help them build resilience and allow them to growth and thrive in the current challenging environment. These include:

Energy Bill Discount Scheme for non-domestic customers

The EBDS will launch on 1st April 2023 for 12 months to 31st March 2024. It will follow on from the Energy Bill Relief Scheme currently in place and running until 31st March 2023.

As with the original scheme, the new scheme will be available to everyone on a non-domestic contract including:

businesses
voluntary sector organisations, such as charities
public sector organisations such as schools, hospitals, and care homes

who are:

on existing fixed price contracts that were agreed on or after 1 December 2021
signing new fixed price contracts
on deemed / out of contract or standard variable tariffs
on flexible purchase or similar contracts
on variable ‘Day Ahead Index’ (DAI) tariffs (Northern Ireland scheme only)

Learn more

Energy Bill Relief Scheme

This scheme from the UK Government will provide energy bill relief for non-domestic customers in Great Britain. Discounts will be applied to energy usage initially between 1 October 2022 and 31 March 2023.

Learn more

Bedford Borough Council Help with the Cost of Living

Bedford Borough Council has a webpage with resources for residents, including details on how to get help with your finances.

Find out more

Growth Curve

Growth Curve is an intensive programme for business owners that will help you strengthen your leadership skills. Combining expert-led masterclasses with one-to-one advice, Growth Curve will allow you to stabilise your business in the current challenging environment, and help set your organisation on track for attainable long-term growth.

Find out more.

Help for Households

The UK Government is offering help for households. See what cost of living support you could be eligible for.

Find out more

Growth Hub Business Support Resources

We have developed a bank of useful national and local business growth information, tools, and resources, covering a wide range of different topics.

Find out more

Growth Hub Business Advice and Support

Our team of business advisers give business leaders and managers the opportunity to work on their business on a one-to-one basis. Depending on the needs of your business, this can either be a one-off conversation or ongoing support. To get in touch and chat with one of our Business Advisers, please fill in our contact form.

Reducing Costs and Increasing Efficiency

Reducing your energy usage not only saves you money but will improve your green credentials, and help the planet too!

Here are some resources and programmes to help:

OFGEM Business Advice

The Office of Gas and Energy Markets (OFGEM) has made available a range of tools, advice and information to help businesses reduce energy costs, as well as advice on looking for funding.

Find out more

The SME Climate Hub

The SME Climate Hub is a global initiative that empowers small to medium sized companies to take climate action and build resilient businesses for the future. By taking action to reduce your carbon emissions, you'll not only be helping the climate but making your business more resilient by lowering costs and increasing efficiency.

Learn more

Low Carbon Workspaces

Low Carbon Workspaces offers small and medium-sized businesses in Buckinghamshire, Bedfordshire, Berkshire, Hertfordshire, Northamptonshire and Milton Keynes grants of between £1,000 and £6,750 to cover up to a third of the cost of making energy improvements.

Learn more

Staff Wellbeing and Mental Health

SEMLEP's Growth Hub Mental Health Support

It is an extremely worrying time for both individuals and business owners, and it's vital that you don't neglect your own mental health, or the mental health of your staff members and co-workers.

A range of mental health advice, and links to tools and resources can be found on the Growth Hub website here.

Bedford Borough Council Mental Health Support

Bedford Borough Council has provided resources to support you to look after your mental health, which is linked to your physical health as well as relationships, education, training and work.

Learn more