More than 2,800 businesses in Buckinghamshire have received Covid 'safety net' grants paid through the Buckinghamshire Additional Restrictions Grants (Bucks ARG) scheme.
That amounts to around 7,600 people.
The local grant scheme was put in place to provide a financial lifeline to help local businesses who fall outside the funding criteria set out by national government under the Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG).
The last round of Bucks ARG funding round closed on Sunday 28 February. Buckinghamshire Council has focussed on getting this safety net funding out to businesses as fast as possible.
Martin Tett, Leader of Buckinghamshire Council said: "Our Bucks Additional Restrictions Grant has been a lifeline for many Bucks businesses who weren't eligible for the main government national funding support schemes."
He continued: "We have made it a real priority to get this money flowing out into the local economy as fast as we possibly can. Unlike many other councils in the country who are still sitting on funding, I'm proud to say we have focused on trying to get every penny out to help our local businesses. We've got around 94 % of our additional grant money out of the door and straight into the bank accounts for local businesses."
So far over 2,800 different businesses have received funding from the Bucks ARG local scheme which has distributed £14.1 million to local businesses in three rounds of funding. We estimate that these businesses employ around 7,600 people.
The focus for Bucks ARG grants has been on processing applications quickly to get money out to businesses and to help self-employed people who may not have qualified for other support. The grants team has received over 7,000 individual applications over the three rounds of this funding. There are still some applications still in process, but we expect to distribute approximately 94% of the available funding by mid March. This is significantly higher than most other councils in the country.
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