Two ambitious projects to help Shropshire’s economy recover from the joint impact of coronavirus and February’s devastating floods have been awarded more than £1.1million by the Marches Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP).

The LEP has awarded Shropshire Council £737,000 and Telford & Wrekin Council £404,000 for innovative schemes to help get the economy and region’s market towns back on their feet.

Both councils have worked with the business boards in their area to draw up the plans which they say could safeguard hundreds of jobs.

In Shropshire, the money will be used to launch a package of grants for businesses in the retail, hospitality, leisure, care and business-enabling services, as well as targeted support for the county’s market towns.

In Telford, the award will help fund the launch of new apps to kickstart the local visitor economy and encourage residents to shop and eat locally.

The awards are part of a £1.6million package of funding agreed by the Marches LEP across Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin to support businesses hardest hit by the Covid-19 crisis and February's flooding.

Mandy Thorn MBE DL, chairman of the Marches LEP, said the partnership was delighted that both packages of support were so innovative in supporting the sectors most in need of help.

She said: “The tourism and visitor economy has been particularly hard hit by the lockdown and floods and large numbers of businesses have suffered as a result through no fault of their own.

"This sector is so important to both Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin and it is vital we get it back on its feet as quickly as possible.”

The Shropshire package will see £450,000 set aside to fund grants of up to £10,000 for small businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure, care and business-enabling sectors which support businesses with services and products which have not been able to claim small business grants (SBG) or retail, hospitality and leisure grants.

A further £150,000 will fund £5,000 grants to micro-businesses which fall into the same category.

Key market towns will benefit from £117,000 of marketing and promotional support to boost footfall and reinvigorate their economies whilst a further £20,000 will be allocated to four further towns to help their recovery.

Paul Bennett, chair of Shropshire Business Board, said the plan would provide much-needed help to businesses still recovering from the winter floods and who fell through the cracks of the government’s coronavirus support.

He said: “We know from our own extensive Marches LEP survey that very many businesses did not qualify for any of the government’s grant support and this is a way of ensuring they receive the help they so desperately need.

"This is then supplemented by projects to help restore customer confidence as we start to see the reopening of the local economy by ensuring consumers are safe and feel it.”

Steve Charmley, Shropshire Council’s cabinet member for assets, economic growth and regeneration, said: “We hope that this package will safeguard as many as 195 jobs and help 75 businesses in their recovery from these two devastating events.

"We will support a dozen market town projects and are targeting a 50 per cent increase in footfall and significant rise in retail and leisure spending.”

The majority of the LEP funding has come from loan repayments from previous job-creating investment projects the partnership has supported.