Member update on the latest situation with Covid Business Grants

Good morning,

We wanted to update you on the latest situation with Covid Business Grants following feedback from a number of you and our conversations with Cornwall Council

The Mandatory Grant Scheme has to date paid £15.73 million to 10,877 local businesses.

The Additional Restrictions Grant which we helped members to gain awareness of for the short 10-day application time-window a couple of weeks ago have to date (since 4th December) made 360 payments worth £935,000 (from the £11.4 million allocated); they anticipate making a further 700 payments this week and in total received 2,159 applications (a small number of these may be ruled as not eligible). The expectation is there will be a major underspend and potentially £5 million could be available to be re-released early in the New Year

In terms of updating you for those who applied , you may either know your outcome already, or find out this week, or be carried into early January when the Council hope to complete assessments and payments.

It would be really useful for those who have applied to update us on any outcomes because as we have already started lobbying for how the possible £5 million ‘underspend’ will be used.

The critical thing is the money has to be allowed back out to support businesses within our sector and this is what we are continuing to lobby for, on your behalf.

So please, if you applied for any of the latest grants, let us know if you were successful or not so we can build our case for further help should this be needed.

Kind Regards

The CMN Team