Five Croydon businesses have had £10,000 to reopen empty shops, half of the ten on offer. Who can apply for the rest, and what the shop front grants pay.
Five Croydon businesses have each been given £10,000 to bring an empty shop back into use. That is half of the ten grants the council set aside for the job in March.
Executive Mayor Jason Perry gave the figure in his weekly column on Friday. He also said six businesses are receiving shop front improvement grants (Mayor Perry, 25 September 2026).
Both grants are part of Croydon Means Business, a programme the council launched in March. The Mayor says it will provide £500,000 of support to local businesses through grants, advice and practical help.
How many empty unit grants are left
The council’s page for the scheme sets out the size of the pot. There are 10 capital grants of £10,000 each, £100,000 in all, paid from the Growth Zone (Croydon Council: empty unit activation grant).
With five paid, up to five remain. The council has not said whether any of those are already promised to applicants further down the process, so treat five as the most there could be, not a guarantee. The scheme’s own guidance warns that “funding is limited and demand is expected to be high, therefore not all applications will be successful.”
Who can apply for the £10,000
The grant is for a business taking on a vacant commercial unit in the borough. According to the scheme guidance, you must:
- be a micro or small independent business, already trading in Croydon or moving into the borough
- not be part of a chain, franchise or national brand
- have secured, or be close to securing, a lease on the vacant unit
- have at least half of your employees living in Croydon
- start the works within one month of getting the money
- supply at least three itemised quotes, which the council’s surveyor checks
The money is for capital costs only: refurbishment, fit-out and getting the unit open. It cannot pay rent, salaries or utility bills. You can apply for one unit only.
How to apply
It starts with a short expression of interest by email to the council’s Business Concierge team at conciergebusinesssupport@croydon.gov.uk. That should cover:
- what the business does and who its customers are
- which empty unit you plan to take
- what the grant would pay for
- what difference it would make to footfall or the local area
Suitable applicants are then contacted, possibly for a site visit, and invited to make a full application with accounts or forecasts, a timeline and the three quotes. The guidance gives no closing date and says timelines “may vary depending on demand”.
The technical and financial checks are carried out by Ayer Associates, the council’s delivery partner, before the council makes the final decision. Money is paid either partly upfront or in stages as work is verified.
The shop front grant: check which streets it covers
The shop front improvement grant pays up to £5,000 per business from a £50,000 pot. It covers new shopfronts, signage, windows and doors, external decoration and lighting, and accessibility or energy-efficiency work (Croydon Council: shop front improvement grant).
The two official sources disagree on who can apply:
- the council’s page and its guidance say it is open to independent micro and small businesses “based in Croydon”, with no street named
- the programme’s own website says it is “available exclusively to South End Road traders” (Croydon Means Business: funding and support). The street in Croydon is called South End
If your shop is anywhere other than South End, ask the concierge team before you spend money on quotes. The council’s page says applications were taken first come, first served from April, and you need three quotes and any planning or building control consent.
The other help on offer
Two more strands of the programme may matter more to a new business than the grants.
Business rates relief. The council has picked 16 empty units with rateable values between £12,000 and £15,000 on busy town centre streets, including George Street, North End, Centrale, Dingwall Road, Station Road and London Road. A new business moving into one can get 12 weeks of rates relief (Croydon Council: business rates relief programme). The conditions are strict:
- it must be a new business, not a relocation
- it must employ Croydon residents through Trailblazers, Connect to Work or Croydon Works
- the relief has to be paid back if the business closes or leaves Croydon within six months
Cheaper commercial waste. New businesses that sign a two-year contract get 50% off commercial waste collection for the first three months, 30% for the next three and 20% for the three after that (Croydon Council: parking and waste services).
The same page says one hour of free parking now applies at more than 20 locations, covering 17 sites and 176 bays in the district and local centres. Our parking in Croydon guide has the car parks and zones.
What it means for you
If you are about to sign a lease on an empty shop in Croydon, email the concierge team now rather than after you have signed. The grant has to be spent within a month of payment, and quotes are needed up front, so it rewards people who are ready to start.
If you already trade from a shop and want a new frontage, confirm whether your street qualifies before paying for quotes. And if you are a shopper, the Mayor’s figures mean five units that were empty should now be open or being fitted out. The council has not published which ones.
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