Scotland’s grant funding slows further, business group argues

Statistics show that the volume of cash reaching firms has slowed, with £58 million being distributed between 5 May and 12 May, compared with £95 million between 28 April and 4 May, and £138 million between 21 April and 27 April.

Local authorities have received around 79,000 grant applications in total, and had received 74,000 grant applications at the end of April.

The Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) in Scotland has requested a meeting with ministers to discuss how to clear any backlog. Official documents show the Scottish government has earmarked £1.2 billion of budget for this grants schemes, which sees firms receive grants of £10,000 or £25,000 and additional grants for operators with multiple properties.    

Andrew McRae, FSB’s Scotland policy chair, said, “The most important thing is that money continues to reach Scottish smaller firms. But today’s statistics suggest that grants aren’t being processed as quickly as they once were, and likely thousands of applications are weeks old.

"We want to talk to ministers about how the Scottish government can work with councils to clear the outstanding paperwork."

In addition, FSB in Scotland has urged ministers to expand the grants scheme to cover indirect rate payers, such as firms that operate from shared offices or indoor markets. It has argued that Scotland should follow the Northern Ireland executive and the UK government, which recently tweaked their grants programs to cover these types of operator. 

“FSB wants to see ministers expand the scheme to cover indirect ratepayers. And we’d like to see help for vehicle and home-based firms too. It looks likely now that there should be money available to make at least some of these changes. These types of businesses are facing similar difficulties to those that have already received help,” Mr McRae said.

“We remain concerned that some businesses that could be due a grant simply don’t understand that help is available. We need new action to promote the scheme and other business support to hard-to-reach businesses like migrant entrepreneurs.”