The Hospitality Grant Scheme: who it is for, and how to prepare for the next round

The Hospitality Grant Scheme is a £10 million government fund, running for three years, for independent pubs, restaurants, and cafés. It pays towards getting new hospitality businesses started, bringing empty premises back into use, and training people for careers in the sector. The first round closed in October 2026. If you hope to apply in a later round, the time to prepare is now: a grant can help a sound plan, but it will not rescue a weak one.

Position as at 30 October 2026: the first application window ran from 2 September to 13 October 2026. I will update this guide when the next round is announced.

What the scheme funds

The Department for Business, Innovation, Science and Trade launched the scheme in September 2026, building on a pilot that backed more than 70 rural pub projects, two hospitality training facilities in prisons, and an innovation hub. The money goes to three kinds of project:

• New ventures: getting a new pub, restaurant, or café off the ground.
• Empty premises: bringing a vacant building back into use as a hospitality business.
• Training: programmes that help people, especially young people, into their first jobs in the sector.

More than £3 million of the fund is earmarked for Pub is The Hub, the non-profit that helps pubs in rural and deprived areas add services such as village shops and community cafés.

Be realistic about the size of it

£10 million across three years and a whole sector is not a large pot, and no maximum grant has been published. For most independents, a grant will be a contribution to a project, not the whole of it. Plan on the basis that you will need to fund most of the cost yourself, through savings, a loan, or investment, and treat any grant as a bonus that lets you do it sooner or better.

A grant is fuel, not a business model.

What a strong application needs

Grant panels see a great many hopeful projects. The ones that succeed make it easy to say yes:

• A clear project. What exactly the money will pay for, and what will exist afterwards that does not exist now: an open venue, a reopened building, a number of people trained.
• Numbers that hold up. A budget, a cash forecast for the first year, and evidence that the business works without the grant once it is open. A project that only survives with continuous funding is a weak bet.
• Evidence of need. Why this place, why now, and who benefits: the village with no pub, the empty unit on the high street, the young people with no route into work.
• Match funding. Show what you are putting in. Panels like to see that you are sharing the risk.
• Deliverability. A realistic timetable, the licences you will need, and the people who will make it happen.

Prepare before the next round opens

Application windows are short. The first round was open for about six weeks. If you wait until the next one is announced to start your plan, you will be writing it in a hurry.

• Read the scheme guidance now, so you know what is and is not eligible.
• Build the budget and the first-year cash forecast as if there were no grant at all.
• Gather the evidence: quotes, local support, and any partners.
• Decide what the project will look like if the grant does not come, and whether you would still do it.

If you would like your plan tested before you apply, or before you commit your own money, a Pre-Opening Diagnostic does exactly that.