Nearly £32m of emergency cash paid out to Northampton businesses...but £6.4m remains in the pot

Around 85 per cent of businesses in Northampton have now received cash as part of a scheme to help them stay afloat during the Covid-19 pandemic, figures reveal.

Firms in the area have received £31 million so far, from an allocated pot of £37.4 million.

Thre were 2,917 properties that had been earmarked for grants, which means there are still 451 businesses waiting to receive funding from Northampton Borough Council, the latest Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy figures show.

In March, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced grants of between £10,000 and £25,000 for small and medium-sized businesses to support them during the coronavirus crisis.

The cash is provided for a business property so firms with multiple outlets can receive more than one payment.

Councils across England had paid out grants worth £10.1 billion to 820,000 business properties by the end of May – 82% of the money made available.

Mike Cherry, chairman of the Federation of Small Businesses, said many councils are doing their best to distribute the grants announced in March.

“It is the responsibility of councils and local authorities to distribute these funds as quickly as possible to help struggling small firms through this pandemic," he said.

"I would urge any councils that still have sizeable chunks of their funding to distribute to do so sooner rather than later.

“Equally, we need to see authorities moving as quickly as possible to allocate additional, discretionary funding to those most in need."

There were five councils across the country that had paid grants to all business properties deemed eligible, according to the data.

At the other end of the spectrum, Sandwell Borough Council had only paid 67% of those in line for assistance.

Richard Watts, chairman of the Local Government Association’s resources board, said: “Government grants are a vital lifeline to businesses struggling at this time and worried about the future.

“Councils have worked hard to distribute more than £10 billion of this vital funding to small businesses. This has been a huge undertaking.”

The government support takes two forms. The Small Business Grants Fund is worth £10,000 and available to those who ordinarily also qualify for relief on their business rates due to their small size.

The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Grants Fund is open to those which would have qualified for a 100% reduction in business rates under the previously announced Expanded Retail Discount scheme as of March 11.

Business Secretary Alok Sharma said local authorities have been working flat out to ensure funds get to hard-pressed small business owners.