Business grants and funding in Greater Manchester

The Growth Company's free business advice

The Growth Company is commissioned by the Greater Manchester Combined Authority and funded through the UK Government's GM Integrated Settlement to run the Business Growth Hub, the single advice service covering Bolton, Bury, Manchester, Oldham, Rochdale, Salford, Stockport, Tameside, Trafford and Wigan. The qualifying condition is one line: the business has to be trading in Greater Manchester. There is no fee.

An enquiry adviser takes the first call, then connects the business to a specialist covering funding, innovation, leadership and skills, market expansion, sustainability or social value, depending on what the business needs. Some of those specialist relationships run for years; others are a single call. Call 0161 359 3050 or email bgh@growthco.uk to register, or start at businessgrowthhub.com.

Loans through GC Business Finance

GC Business Finance delivers two loan products across Greater Manchester, on behalf of the British Business Bank and the Growth Company. The Start Up Loan is a personal loan of £500 to £25,000 per owner, up to £100,000 per business, for anyone starting or growing a business that has traded for five years or less, at a fixed rate of 6% a year over one to five years, unsecured, with twelve months of free mentoring attached. The NPIF II Smaller Loan runs from £25,000 to £100,000 for an established small or medium business that needs to expand or improve how it operates, available across Northern England and delivered locally through GC Business Finance.

Both loans are debt: the business or the owner repays every pound plus interest. They suit a business whose plan needs capital now, when a grant round is closed or has no equivalent for the amount involved.

Grants set by your own council

Grant money in Greater Manchester comes from each council separately, on its own budget, with its own rules and its own timetable. Stockport, Trafford, Manchester and the other boroughs each publish a current business support offer on their own council website, and a Business Growth Hub adviser can point a business to whichever is open in its borough. Wigan Council runs its own named scheme for new apprentices, with a published amount, a clear eligibility test and a payment schedule a business can plan around.

Future Apprentices for Business pays an employer in Wigan borough £3,000 for recruiting a 16 to 24 year old onto a new apprenticeship, or £5,000 if the apprentice is a care leaver, has a special educational need, or was not in education, employment or training beforehand. The business has to employ fewer than 250 people and pay at least the National Minimum Wage for the apprentice's age. The basic £3,000 is paid in two parts: £1,000 when the apprenticeship starts and £2,000 when it finishes. The enhanced £5,000 adds a further £2,000 at the midpoint. Wigan Council funds the scheme directly and has committed £700,000 to it since it launched.

Hiring an apprentice in Leigh through the FAB grant

Take an illustrative Leigh-based electrical contractor taking on one 17-year-old apprentice, not from a priority group, on a new apprenticeship. From 1 April 2026 the apprentice minimum wage is £8.00 an hour; at 37.5 hours a week that is £15,600 a year in gross pay. Because the apprentice is under 25 and earns below the Apprentice Upper Secondary Threshold of £50,270, the employer pays no employer National Insurance on that wage at all, even though the standard employer rate above the £5,000 secondary threshold is 15% from April 2025. Pension auto-enrolment still applies: the employer's minimum 3% contribution is calculated on qualifying earnings between £6,240 and £50,270, so 3% of £9,360 is £280.80 a year.

Wages, National Insurance and the minimum pension contribution put the first year's cost at £15,880.80 before any grant. The Future Apprentices for Business basic grant pays £1,000 toward that when the apprenticeship starts, with the remaining £2,000 following when the apprentice completes the course — which may fall in a later tax year if the apprenticeship runs longer than twelve months. The grant covers roughly three weeks of the wage cost; the business still has to fund the rest from trading income between the two payment stages. An apprenticeship still needs a written contract of employment, which Buzz Legal's employment contract template sets out.

Checklist for this week

• Register with the Business Growth Hub on 0161 359 3050 or bgh@growthco.uk and say what the business needs.
• If the business has traded for five years or less and needs £500 to £25,000, ask about a Start Up Loan before looking elsewhere.
• If the business needs £25,000 to £100,000 to expand, ask about an NPIF II Smaller Loan.
• If the business is in Wigan borough and can take on a 16 to 24 year old apprentice, apply for Future Apprentices for Business before recruiting, not after the apprentice starts.
• If the business is in another borough, check that council's own business support page, since schemes and budgets differ across the ten.
• Before applying for anything, work out the full first-year cost of what the grant or loan is funding, including National Insurance and pension, so the cash flow between payment stages is covered.

What Buzz does and what the agencies do

The Growth Company, GC Business Finance and each council run the advice, the loan underwriting and the grant decision. Buzz works out the numbers behind an application: the wage, National Insurance and pension cost of a new hire (see hiring your first employee), the cash flow between a grant's payment stages, and how a loan or grant is recorded in the accounts once it lands. For late payment from a customer that is holding up the cash a grant or loan is meant to cover, Business Debt Recovery handles the recovery itself. For the wider position running a business in Greater Manchester, start at our Greater Manchester page.