MORE than a grand is up for grabs for wannabe Richard Bransons living in the right postcode.

There are still up to a dozen vacancies on a Government scheme designed to encourage entrepreneurs in disadvantaged areas across the county.

For the past few years, hundreds of people have been helped to set up their own business in Kent and Medway by the New Entrepreneur Scholarship (NES) scheme.

They have been on courses, advised by experienced business people and given a grant at the end of the programme to develop their business idea. The grant is currently £1,500.

Some great businesses are now up and running. Tanya Curran, from Margate, who started her business career on the scheme, recently won a national award for her business MPower Mindworks.

Organisers at Kent Business School and Technology Enterprise Kent (TEK) have promoted the latest scheme across Thanet, Dover, Shepway and Medway. There have been lots of inquiries.

But because the scheme is only eligible to people living in a tightly-defined postcode, many callers are told that they live in the wrong area.

This postcode lottery is making it hard to reach the people who would benefit from the scheme.

"The system has changed," said Patrick Tierney, the TEK’s community initiatives manager. We have had dozens of inquiries but only half from people living in the right postcode."

He added: "As we still have about a dozen vacancies, we have extended the deadline to January 17.

"We would love to hear from people with a good business idea and living in parts of Thanet, Dover, Medway and Shepway."

Anyone interested in finding out more should ring TEK on 01304 822351.