Edinburgh City Council has distributed more than £123m of government coronavirus grants to capital businesses

The administration of the business grants has cost the council itself £900,000, and at peak times has necessitated the use of over 100 full time council officers.

The Scottish Government’s Business Grant Scheme, which was operational from April to July 2020, makes up the bulk of the grants, with £117,960,000 being distributed to 9,600 capital businesses.

The Coronavirus Restrictions Fund, which benefitted 1,300 businesses with £3,177,600 of grants, was operational between October and November, while £1,016,000 was distributed as part of the Newly Self Employed and B&B Hardship fund between April and July.

Seventeen businesses benefited from a total of £575,000, distributed as part of the Covid-19 Contingency Fund (Nightclubs and Softplay) in November, and £676,500 was granted to 410 businesses in the same month as part of the Covid-19 Furlough Support Fund.

Finally, the first quarterly payment of the ongoing Coronavirus Strategic Framework Support Fund was received by eligible businesses in late November.

Councillor Kate Campbell, convener of the council’s housing, homelessness and fair work committee, said: “There’s no doubt that the last ten months have had an enormous impact on businesses, jobs and people’s livelihoods across the city, and we’ve been doing everything we can to help them to cope with restrictions.

“Administering more than £123m in critical funding has been a huge undertaking.

“It’s with thanks to the hard work of many dedicated staff that we’ve been able to offer and facilitate support to over 11,300 businesses, in addition to ‘business as usual’ services.

“We are working with Scottish Government, COSLA and local partners to make available the additional support for businesses recently announced by the Scottish Government.

“Last year was difficult, and this year is going to be hard too.

“We understand that many businesses are in need of support so I would encourage any businesses who are continuing to struggle to visit our website to find out what support is on offer for them.”

On November 17 of last year, the the Scottish Government announced further support for businesses, including a £30m discretionary fund to enable local authorities to provide additional support for businesses where they consider that necessary or justified, and an additional £15m for newly self-employed people who have not been able to access other forms of support.

However, the council is still awaiting guidance on these schemes from Holyrood.

The report is due to be presented to councillors at a meeting of the local authority’s housing, homelessness and fair working committee on Thursday January 14.

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