Almost £17million handed out to Hartlepool businesses to help firms through Covid-19 crisis

Hartlepool Borough Council previously wrote to around 1,500 businesses eligible to receive the grant funding to support them in light of the coronavirus outbreak, urging them to apply for it.

This came after the Government announced in March business rates support and grant funding intended to help the most-affected firms manage their cash flow through this period.

This included two grant schemes, a Small Business Grants Fund scheme and a Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Grants Fund.

In a report to Hartlepool Borough Council Finance and Policy Committee an update was given on grants claimed by business in the region to date.

In total 1,493 businesses, more than 94% of those eligible, had been paid out grants, totalling £16.765million.

The report, presented by director of finance and policy Chris Little, said: “The council acted quickly to pay these grants to Hartlepool businesses and our performance has consistently exceeded the national average.

“This was particularly the case at 20th April when the council ranked 13th out of 314 councils and had paid out 80% of the eligible grants, compared to an average of 50%.”

In response to national concerns eligibility of the grants excluded some businesses, the Government announced a further ‘Discretionary Grant Fund’ in May.

The fund offers help with fixed property-related costs and is aimed at small businesses and charities with less than 50 employees who have experienced a substantial loss of income due to Covid-19.

Funding for the scheme was set at 5% of the original grant allocations, providing Hartlepool with an allocation of £876,500.

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The council’s discretionary fund reflected national guidance and a two week application process was adopted, closing on 15 June, and in total 177 applications were received.

Applications are being assessed and where supporting information is incomplete businesses are being contacted.

Mr Little added if there is any funding leftover they may look at a third scheme.

He also noted Hartlepool received the most applications for its discretionary fund out of the authorities in the Tees Valley.

Mr Little said: “It’s interesting Hartlepool being the smallest of the Teesside unitary authorities, I think we have the most applications for the discretionary scheme in total.

“I don’t quite understand why that’s the case but we’ll work through them and see what the outcome is against the existing funding and if there is funding left we’ll have to come back with further proposals.”

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