£183 million of Covid support given to Wiltshire businesses
Wiltshire Council's revealed the numbers
Last updated 11th Apr 2022
A total of £183 million pounds of grant support has been given to businesses in Wiltshire over the course of the Covid pandemic.
Wiltshire Council has made 32,000 payments to businesses passing on Government support since March 2020.
The money's come from a number of support schemes, to help rate-paying and non-rate paying businesses, as well as hospitality and leisure grants, retail grants, discretionary grants and others.
Cllr Richard Clewer, Leader of the council and Cabinet Member for Economic Development, said:
“The pandemic has been a difficult time for us all, and many Wiltshire businesses have found it particularly challenging as they deal with lockdowns, the constant uncertainty, and the subsequent drops in trade, while doing their best to keep their staff and customers safe.
“We’ve always said that we’ll do all we can to support businesses during the pandemic, and we have done so, issuing many thousands of grants totalling £183m to Wiltshire businesses, along with campaigns to encourage people to support local businesses, free parking for some periods and rate relief for eligible businesses."
There's also been tributes paid to the staff at Wiltshire Council, who have helped to deliver the support to businesses.
Cllr Clewer said:
“I’d particularly like to thank all the council officers who have worked so hard on business grants during the past two years. Issuing this many grants, while carefully following eligibility guidelines for several different schemes, gathering the necessary evidence and responding to many thousands of queries, is no small undertaking, particularly as we tended to find out about the national updates at the same time as everyone else.
“We had to bring in staff from across the organisation to support the huge effort of administering and paying the grants, and they have all done a fantastic job under extremely difficult and challenging circumstances.
“As we move out of the pandemic, we will continue to support the great businesses we have here in Wiltshire to help them recover.”