The Head of Regeneration and Economic Development introduced the report outlining the grants that had been made available to support businesses since March 2020. A team was set up across the Council to facilitate the administration of the support grants, and delegated authority was used to introduce the discretionary streams of the grants to enable them to be distributed promptly.

The Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) totalled £3.4 million to fund discretionary business grants and wider business support activity and following each round of discretionary grants, intelligence was collected from local businesses which then informed the categories included in subsequent rounds. Over 7,000 grants had been awarded since March 2020, and new mandatory grants were expected in April 2021. The ARG would continue to be distributed and further opportunities to benefit from additional grant allocations was expected.

Positive feedback from local businesses was noted, and the responsiveness of the cross-departmental team was acknowledged.

RESOLVED: That the progress in the administration of business support grants be noted, and the Committee express their thanks to the staff involved in the provision of the business grants.