Clackmannanshire Council Online

£3.9 million Paid Out to Clackmannanshire Businesses

The Council has paid out £3.9 million in grants to businesses throughout Clackmannanshire so far as part of the Coronavirus Business Grant Support Scheme.

The grants are part of a Scottish Government scheme to help businesses deal with the impact of the Coronavirus outbreak.

The Council is processing applications for the grants of £10,000 and £25,000 which are available to help protect jobs, prevent business closures and promote economic recovery.

A dedicated group of council officers have been working extremely hard to process over 470 applications from Clackmannanshire businesses, and to make sure that the grants are paid out as quickly as possible.

Cllr Ellen Forson, Leader of the Council said: “To make sure that we keep people safe in the face of this pandemic, unimaginable changes have been made to daily living which have had a serious impact on local businesses.  These are mostly small firms, who employ local people and are the backbone of Clackmannanshire’s economy.  I’m very proud that our officers have worked so hard to ensure that this welcome Scottish Government funding is awarded to local businesses, with £3.9 million paid out so far.  I’d encourage any business owners who haven’t yet applied to log onto the Council website to see if they are eligible.”

Cabinet Secretary for Finance, Kate Forbes added: “The Scottish Government has worked closely with Clackmannanshire Council to establish a scheme to pay grant funding to eligible businesses as quickly as possible. I am grateful for the way in which Local Authorities across Scotland have managed huge volumes of applications so quickly and paid out millions of grant funding already. This funding will make a big difference, and complements other business support like the Job Retention Scheme and Self-Employed Scheme. This has been an excellent example of team work and I’m grateful to all elected members and officers for their work.”

The application form is available on the Council website, and the scheme is open until 31 March 2021.  To ensure that officers are able to process applications and pay out grants as quickly as possible, applicants are asked to:

• Check very carefully that you've answered all the questions correctly
• Make sure you include a scanned bank statement or image of the nominated bank account, dated within three months of your application date
• Not contact officers to chase up progress of your grant unless you have not heard anything within 10 working days

Further support packages have been announced recently, and businesses should keep an eye on the website for updates.