Basildon Council is this week paying out £1.36m in discretionary grants to help 198 small and micro businesses in the borough.
The money is coming from central government in response to the coronavirus pandemic, but local councils are responsible for managing the payments and ensuring it gets to the right businesses as quickly as possible. It will go out to businesses with high premises costs – meaning support is available for smaller business hit hard by the pandemic.
A further £100,000 could potentially be paid by the council by the end of the week to 20 more business who have also applied. This will mean that Basildon Council will have made sure that £1.46m out of a possible £1.6m fund awarded to the council by central government will have been paid out in just five days since the applications closed last Sunday night.
The Leader of Basildon Council Gavin Callaghan said: “We’ve been able to get support out in record time, and today marks the start of a new line of defence against the impact of coronavirus on our small and micro businesses across the borough.
“We have allocated the maximum award level for Micro Businesses (£5k) and Small Businesses (£10k) as the policy intended, which for many people could be the difference between staying afloat and losing their business.
“There are 124 micro and 74 small business that we are assisting today, and although we are the largest economy in the Thames estuary outside of Canary Wharf, many smaller business have been hit very hard and need help as well.
“These are not big national or international companies, but people making a living with their own ideas and acumen who need our support.
“I would like to thank everyone involved who has made this happen so quickly.
“These were only announced by government in mid May 2020, the scheme was finalised 23 May 2020, agreed by Basildon members on 2 June 2020, and applications closed last Sunday – and we are paying today.”
Out of 293 that applied, there are currently 218 that qualify with the eligible criteria, with 20 of these businesses “micro businesses” that need further ‘due diligence’ before being awarded grants.
