Ƶapp Council is beating the Scottish average for getting national funding to local businesses affected by COVID-19.
As of 14 April, the council had processed nearly 900 applications and has been able to match 95% of these (839) to funding support criteria, compared to a national average of 85%.
The number of applications being submitted to the council continues to grow.
At the first meeting of the council’s Business Continuity Committee today (16 April), councillors heard that the council has now received nearly 1,900 applications for support from the grant funding provided by the Scottish Government and managed through councils.
Leader of the council, Councillor Aileen Morton said:
“We want to do all we possibly can to help local businesses. We have transferred employees from other areas of work to support the service dealing with grant applications. We have set up a review process for any application that does not, on initial consideration, meet national criteria, to give businesses every chance to qualify for grant support.
Before assessing applications, we obviously need to confirm Scottish Government guidance on eligibility for support and we need to follow up with applicants if any information is missing. We would ask businesses to please double check you have provided all detail required when you send in an application.
Our focus overall will continue to be on getting support to all eligible businesses as quickly as possible.”
Businesses affected by COVID-19 can find information on the council’s website about funding support available.
Notes:
The Scottish Government has announced a second phase of - we await guidance on what assistance it can provide and criteria for being eligible for support.