The Kitten's Emporium in George's Yard has the council's Independent Retailer Grant. Who qualifies, the 8-week deadline and how the two £600 halves are paid.

A craft collective in George’s Yard has become the latest Andover business to take Test Valley Borough Council’s Independent Retailer Grant, worth up to £1,200 for independents that move into an empty town centre unit.

The Kitten’s Emporium sells crafts, gifts and clothing made by a range of small businesses. Owner Kitty Skye set it up after previously being involved in another craft collective, and the shop opens six days a week. Her husband Adam helps to run it at weekends and sells handmade instruments and musical accessories there; Kitty’s own jewellery and crystal business trades from the shop too. (Test Valley Borough Council, 17 August 2026)

The premises hold a retail space for gifts and crafts and a separate clothing room with a changing area, which the shop also uses for small workshops such as ceramic painting.

“I would like to take this opportunity to thank the businesses, the community and, of course, all my existing and future customers for making me feel so incredibly welcome in my first few months here in Andover,” Kitty Skye said.

St Mary’s Ward councillor Iris Andersen said independent businesses “play a vital role in supporting our town centres and local economic growth”.

The grant is a standing scheme, not a one-off award

The useful part of this, for anyone else eyeing an empty unit, is that the Independent Retailer Grant is not a prize handed to one shop. It is an open scheme, and the council’s published terms set out exactly who can have it.

It is £1,200 for an independently owned business taking on ground floor premises that have been empty for at least one calendar month, in the Primary Shopping Areas of Andover or Romsey. The business has to be new to that town centre. (Test Valley Borough Council, Independent Retailer Grant)

The eligible uses are:

  • Class E(a), shops
  • Class E(b), restaurants and cafes
  • Class E(e), medical or health services, other than a practitioner working from home
  • Class F2(a), community shops
  • Sui generis tattoo parlours, beauticians, massage parlours and nail bars

The scheme excludes nationally owned multiple chains, charity shops, the remaining Class E and sui generis uses, and any business already receiving the council’s Business Incentive Grant.

It is not a lump sum, and the clock is short

Two conditions catch people out. The first is the deadline: the application has to be in no later than eight weeks after the business starts trading at its town centre premises. The second is that the money arrives in halves, both of them after you have already been open.

Diagram showing the four steps of the Test Valley Independent Retailer Grant, then a timeline of when each 600 pound instalment is paid: at 3 and 9 months of trading on a standard lease, or at 6 and 12 months on a reduced rent deal.
Both halves of the grant are paid only after the shop has been trading. On a reduced rent agreement, each payment is pushed back.

£600 is paid once the business has traded for at least three months, and the second £600 once it has traded for at least nine. If the shop opened on a reduced rent agreement, those become six months and twelve months. Payments go to a business bank account, and the council asks for evidence of trading first, such as accounting records, invoices, receipts or bank statements.

There are three council visits: one to establish eligibility, one at the three-month point and one at nine months. A decision on the award normally follows within 20 working days of the first visit. A borough councillor visits when the first payment is made and is photographed for a press release, and the shop has to display a council window sticker for at least a year after that first payment.

One further restriction is easy to miss. A business cannot hold both this grant and the Business Incentive Grant, and an applicant cannot claim either grant again for a different business within five years of a first award.

What it means for you

If you are opening an independent shop, cafe or salon in Andover or Romsey town centre, apply early. The eight-week window runs from the day you start trading, not from the day you sign a lease, and there is no way to recover it once it has passed.

  • Taking a town centre unit. Check the premises have been empty for at least a month with no lease or licence in place, and that your use class is on the list above.
  • Trading somewhere else in the borough, or not in retail. The Business Incentive Grant is £750 for a new start-up anywhere in Test Valley, where the owner works in the business full time, at least 30 hours a week, as their only job. It is paid after six months of trading, and the same eight-week application deadline applies.
  • Get the consents first. Planning, building control and licensing permissions all have to be in place. The council’s building control team is on buildingcontrol@testvalley.gov.uk.

For anyone weighing up a unit in the town, our Andover planning news page follows what is being applied for and approved locally, and things to do in Andover covers what else is drawing people into the centre.

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