Digital grants by nation: England Scotland, Wales and NI in 2026

Last checked: October 2026. On 20 October 2026 we compared each scheme below with the official page that describes it. Rounds open and close quickly, so treat the status notes as a starting point and confirm before you apply.

Business support for small firms is organised differently in each part of the UK. England has a national front door, with money flowing to mayoral authorities, councils and regional programmes. Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland run their own agencies and advice services, each with its own priorities.

The practical effect is that the same digital project can get free advice in one place, a part-funded grant in another and nothing at all in a third. This guide goes nation by nation: who to contact first, which digital schemes are running, and whether any of them pays for a website.

The Business Growth Service and Growth Hubs

The Department for Business and Trade’s SME action plan set out a national service with local delivery at its heart, bringing core business support services and the England-wide Growth Hubs network under one banner. For most firms, the first conversation is still with the local Growth Hub.

How hubs are paid for now depends on where you are. Under the government’s small business plan, established mayoral strategic authorities that receive integrated settlements get funding for Growth Hubs and Made Smarter Adoption as part of those settlements from 2026/27. We found no national list of what each hub can offer in 2026/27, so ask yours directly.

Made Smarter for manufacturers

Made Smarter Adoption runs in regions across England and does pay out cash, but only to SME manufacturers, and each region sets its own terms. Two examples:

• South East: extended until the end of March 2027, with up to 50% match funding of up to £20,000 for equipment (hardware or software) and a limited number of grants up to £50,000. Eligibility includes fewer than 250 employees, annual turnover below £44m and UK-based manufacturing or production processes.
• South West: delivered from April 2026 onwards, with 50% match funding and grants between £1,000 and £20,000 depending on the business’s needs.

Local and combined authority schemes

Grants that name websites are local in England. York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority’s Digital Adoption Grant has funded 28 projects with awards of up to £3,000, and several of them were new or rebuilt websites. Its page lists those awards rather than an open round. Schemes like this are funded locally and run on their own timetable, so your Growth Hub or combined authority is the most reliable way to hear about the next one.

Business Gateway

For a small business in Scotland, Business Gateway is the natural place to start. It describes itself as a publicly funded service offering free 1:1 expert advice, online resources and a wide range of webinars and events, and its homepage listed more than 250 free webinars and events when we checked.

Its AI Adoption Programme page collects AI webinars and practical guides. Upcoming sessions listed when we checked included one on AI and search on 23 October 2026, an introduction to AI for small businesses on 11 November 2026 and a session on large language models on 12 November 2026.

Scottish Enterprise

Scottish Enterprise’s digital transformation team offers free, impartial advice on any aspect of digital and IT, including AI, business processes, data and business systems. This is advice rather than funding. Its grants page says it will still deliver a few targeted grants but will also focus on helping businesses find grant funding from partners and external sources.

What happened to DigitalBoost and the Digital Development Loan?

Older articles still describe the Digital Development Loan and Business Gateway’s DigitalBoost programme as open. According to a Scottish Government freedom of information release, answered in November 2023, the loan officially closed on its contract end date of 2 May 2023 and the DigitalBoost Development Grant on 13 May 2023. The same release lists the DigitalBoost National Programme among the digital schemes paused because of extraordinary pressure on public finances and new priorities.

The old DigitalBoost web address now leads to Business Gateway’s homepage. We found no relaunch in 2026, so we have left the old loan and grant terms out.

Council grants

Some councils run their own schemes. West Lothian Council’s Digital Development Grant, funded through its Economic Growth Plan, lists building an e-commerce website among eligible spending, alongside software, hardware, IT infrastructure, workforce digital skills and app development. VAT-registered businesses can receive up to £7,500 against a total project cost of £15,000, and all VAT costs are excluded from the grant.

Businesses that received the grant in the last 12 months should not apply, and the council says budgets are limited and awards are discretionary. You register interest by emailing the Invest in West Lothian team, so ask them whether money is still available before you plan around it.

Business Wales

Business Wales offers free, independent advice to anyone starting, running or growing a business in Wales, and the Welsh Government is using it to deliver new AI support.

On 12 January 2026 the Welsh Government announced £2.1 million to help SMEs in Wales adopt AI. It includes £600,000 for Business Wales to develop and deliver an AI awareness and adoption support programme, £500,000 to use AI in the tourism and events sectors, and £1 million for an AI upskilling offer through the Flexible Skills Programme.

Flexible Skills Programme

The Flexible Skills Programme is a Welsh Government funded initiative that helps businesses in Wales pay for staff training. Its guidance says employers can apply for 50% of accredited training costs, up to £50,000 per application, with no minimum. Under the AI upskilling offer announced in January 2026, employers pay just 25% of AI training costs and 50% for other courses.

Businesses must be based in Wales and solvent, and the training must be accredited or meet a recognised industry standard; any certified provider can be used. Digital skills are one of eight priority themes, and you start with an expression of interest on the Business Wales website. The guidance page we checked, last updated on 9 September 2025, still asked employers to release staff for training by the end of March 2026, so ask Business Wales which deadline applies to a new application.

It pays for skills, not for an agency to build your site. It can, however, help your team manage content, analytics or an online shop after launch.

We found no Wales-wide grant for website builds in 2026. For loan finance, ask Business Wales about current options; we could not confirm loan terms from an official page that answered our checks, so we have left them out of this guide.

Invest NI’s business strategy for 2024–2027 includes a commitment to accelerate digitalisation with a focus on new technology, automation and AI. For smaller firms, the most concrete scheme is the Digital Transformation Flexible Fund (DTFF), described on nibusinessinfo.co.uk, the free advice service offered by Invest NI.

How the DTFF works

• It is delivered by all local authorities in Northern Ireland under the Full Fibre Northern Ireland Consortium and supported by Invest NI.
• Grants run from £5,000 to £20,000 and cover up to 70% of eligible project costs.
• Applicants must be small or micro businesses based in one of the 11 council areas, be VAT registered (or, if VAT exempt, trade above the VAT threshold), have traded for at least 12 months and have a Digital Transformation Plan or similar.
• Businesses that have received more than €300,000 in public funding over the past three financial years cannot apply, and primary agriculture, forestry and fisheries are excluded.
• Projects must focus on one or more of six advanced technology areas: smart environments and the Internet of Things; simulation, process automation and additive manufacturing; big data and analytics; immersive technologies; AI and machine learning; and blockchain.
• The project must show how it will transform the way the business operates, not just digitise existing processes.

For Call 7, the expression of interest stage closed on 27 February 2026, the full application window was expected to close on 1 May 2026 and letters of offer were due to be issued in August 2026. The page notes that these dates are indicative. We found no announcement of a further call at the time of checking.

In our reading, a brochure website on its own fits none of the six technology areas and would struggle with the transformation test. If your project uses AI or process automation, for example, and a website is one part of it, ask your council’s DTFF contact before you apply.

The common thread is that free advice is available everywhere, while cash for digital projects is either sector-specific, council-led or tied to training.

Advisers deal with many enquiries. A clear, specific request gets a faster and more useful answer.

1. Describe the problem the project solves, for example “phone bookings take up a day of staff time each week”, not just “we need a new website”.
2. Have the basics ready: rough budget, timescale, number of staff and how long you have traded, because several schemes above set limits on size or trading history.
3. Ask directly: is there an open or planned grant round for digital projects in my area, and does it cover websites?
4. Ask what is excluded, such as hosting, licences, VAT or work that started before approval.
5. Ask about match funding and timing. If a grant is paid retrospectively, you pay the supplier first.
6. Take any free webinar or diagnostic on offer before you choose a supplier.
7. Get an itemised quote that separates one-off build costs from ongoing costs, so it drops straight into an application.
8. Join the hub’s mailing list; local rounds can open and close quickly.

We are a web and software agency based in Poole, working with businesses across the UK. We do not run any of these schemes and cannot promise an outcome. What we can do is provide an itemised quote that fits an application and plan the build in phases, so later stages can wait for funding. See our services or request a quote.

• Department for Business and Trade’s SME action plan: 2025 to 2028 – GOV.UK
• Backing your business: our plan for small and medium sized businesses – GOV.UK
• Made Smarter Adoption – South East
• Made Smarter Adoption – South West
• Digital Adoption Programme – York and North Yorkshire Combined Authority
• Business Gateway – business support in Scotland
• AI Adoption Programme – Business Gateway
• Digital transformation support – Scottish Enterprise
• Business grants and funding calls – Scottish Enterprise
• Digital support funding: FOI release – gov.scot
• Digital Development Grant – Invest in West Lothian
• Get support for your business from Business Wales – GOV.WALES
• £2.1 million support to help Welsh businesses adopt AI – GOV.WALES
• Flexible Skills Programme (FSP) – GOV.WALES
• Digital Transformation Flexible Fund – nibusinessinfo.co.uk
• Invest NI Business Strategy 2024–2027