Southwark Pioneers Fund: last £18,842 to four food firms

Southwark Council is set to hand out the last of a four-year enterprise grant pot next week, and all of it goes to food and drink businesses. A report published on 12 August recommends £18,842 in Grow Your Enterprise grants, split equally between four enterprises at £4,710.50 each. The decision sits with Councillor Rachel Bentley, the executive member for inclusive economy, equalities and democracy, and cannot be taken before 18 August. (Southwark Council, Southwark Pioneers Fund: Growth grant awards (Round 5) approval)

The four named in the appendix are Lo Viet Ltd, which the council describes as serving Vietnamese food from family recipes and which would use the money to buy catering equipment, brand a food truck and build a second catering team for events and film work; Cecii Health, a gut-health and wellness business based on fermented foods, funding product positioning, compliance and customer acquisition for retail and subscription sales; Mum’s House London, a sole trader offering Afro-Caribbean fusion events catering, putting the grant towards a bespoke food trailer for festivals, markets and outdoor events; and incredibowl, which sells açaí bowls, smoothies and wellness food and wants a food trailer to trade seven days a week. All four came through the Accelerator programme for food and beverage businesses. (Southwark Council, Appendix 1: Recommended enterprises for SPF Growth grant awards Round 5)

None of them are in this part of the borough

The wards listed against the four awards are Surrey Docks, Old Kent Road, South Bermondsey and Rotherhithe. That is the whole of the northern and eastern edge of Southwark and none of it is Dulwich, East Dulwich, Peckham, Nunhead, Camberwell or Herne Hill. Grants are not allocated by geography, so this is not a decision to spread money around the borough; awards go to businesses that completed the support programme and scored highest against the criteria. But it is worth knowing that the final round of a borough-wide fund landed entirely on one side of it.

The fund has now spent everything it had

The Southwark Pioneers Fund was set up to support the creation and scale-up of commercial and social enterprises in the borough. The Growth contract went to Hatch Enterprise in June 2022, and grants are open only to enterprises that have been through the business support Hatch delivers, with applications assessed by Hatch in partnership with Groundwork. The council holds the budget and pays the grants. (Southwark Council, Report: Southwark Pioneers Fund Growth grant awards Round 5 approval)

The total Grow Your Enterprise grants budget was £222,476, made up of £171,106 from the Pioneers Fund reserve and £51,370 of UK Shared Prosperity Fund money. The UKSPF share was spent in full by Round 3. With Round 5 approved, the report states plainly that there are no funds left for future grant rounds.

The rounds have varied a lot in size. Round 1 gave £32,500 to four enterprises, an average of £8,125 each. Round 2 approved £79,850 for eight, but one of them, Best of Both Boutique, moved out of the borough before payment, so £69,850 was spent and the £10,000 set aside was rolled into later rounds. Round 3 spread £41,985 across ten enterprises and Round 4 £59,299 across twelve, which works out at under £5,000 a business. Round 5 keeps that smaller cheque size.

The council also publishes who the money reaches. In this round, 75 per cent of the grants go to female-led enterprises and all four are led by people from Black, Asian or minority ethnic backgrounds. Across all five rounds, 57 per cent of grants went to Black, Asian or minority ethnic-led enterprises, 51 per cent to female-led enterprises and 8 per cent to disabled-led enterprises. The programme targets are 60 per cent, 60 per cent and 10 per cent respectively, so the fund is short of all three over its lifetime.

What it means for you

If you run a small business in Southwark and were waiting for the next Growth grant round, there is not one. The Grow Your Enterprise grant budget is exhausted with this decision. The separate Pioneers Fund Start-Up grants are still running, and the council says Round 5 of those will be decided in November 2026, so that is the next date to watch.

Grant money is not paid on approval. Recipients have to sign and return the council’s conditions of grant funding within set timescales and clear the council’s financial procedures first, and progress is monitored at agreed milestones.

For everyone else, the practical upshot is more street food. Three of the four grants pay for trailers, trucks or catering kit, which means more traders working Southwark’s markets and events over the next year. If you are looking for what is already trading nearby, our Dulwich business directory lists local restaurants, cafes, pubs and shops with addresses and opening hours.