Buckinghamshire Council pulls out all the stops to get grants out to local businesses

While some councils are still sitting on government money intended to help local businesses through the pandemic, Buckinghamshire Council is a top performing council in the whole country in terms of getting government money out to support local businesses.

The latest figures released nationally by BEIS (Department for Business Energy and Industrial Strategy) show that in terms of the percentage  of additional restrictions grant funding that councils have received, grants teams at Buckinghamshire Council have outperformed every other council bar one across England in ensuring businesses received financial support as fast as possible.

Buckinghamshire Council has successfully distributed close to 100% of the additional restrictions funds it has received from government – in excess of £21 million.  Over 4,500 local businesses employing an estimated 16,079 people across Buckinghamshire have received additional restrictions grants paid out by Buckinghamshire Council.

Martin Tett, Leader of Buckinghamshire Council said: “Helping our businesses survive the impacts of forced closure and trading restrictions during Covid has been, and will continue to be, a key priority for us at Buckinghamshire Council. For our discretionary funding scheme we prioritised getting as much of the support out to as many businesses as possible, especially those businesses which were not able to access support from the national business support programmes.  Our teams have pulled out all the stops to fast track getting grants paid out to businesses as quickly as we could. Our performance compared to other councils is certainly a feather in our cap but most importantly it’s a tangible and practical way we are working to help businesses and protect our local economy.”

Tickety Brew Café in Haddenham is one of thousands of businesses to get additional restrictions grants funding from Buckinghamshire Council. Owner Tracey Platt says: “I can honestly say hand on heart without the help of Buckinghamshire Council I would not still be trading and there would be five more people with no jobs. Your staff have been incredibly helpful, and the grants have truly saved our bacon. I realise that many councils are helping small businesses, but I do feel you have all gone above and beyond to get funding out to businesses like me.”

For information about all the business grant support available go to our Coronavirus business support hub