Over £50 million paid to Stockport businesses in Coronavirus grants

Stockport Council has supported more than 4,300 businesses during the coronavirus crisis with payments exceeding £50 million through the Small Business Grant Funding scheme.

Launched on April 2nd, 529 payment applications were processed in the first 24 hours with grants totalling nearly £8.5m being made to help businesses in Stockport to survive the coronavirus crisis.

At 9am on Monday, May 4, more than 75 per cent of qualifying businesses in Stockport had received funding, with £50,350,000 in total paid out.

The grant payments are administered through two schemes: £10,000 for those businesses registered for small business rate relief (SBBR). For businesses in the retail, leisure and hospitality sectors a £25,000 grant is payable for eligible businesses with a rateable value of between £15,000 and £51,000 per year; those whose rateable value is £15,000 and below qualify for a £10,000 grant payment.

Cllr David Meller, Cabinet Member for Economy and Regeneration, said council officers had been working incredibly hard to ensure the grants reached Stockport businesses as soon as possible. He said:

Once the funding had reached us from the Government, our team were busy processing the claims straight away but l believe there are businesses out there that are eligible for the grants who haven’t yet applied.

“The team administering the grant schemes are now working to target people who are yet to apply. They are also encouraging those that have applied but are still waiting for payment to resubmit. Refilling in the form now will automatically show if the application has been processed and, if not, it will automatically process the application and the grant issued by BACs within three to five days.

“If you are eligible – or even think you are – and you have not applied, I am urging you do so as soon as you can.

“We know how hard this crisis is hitting businesses in Stockport, and we want to do everything we can as quickly as possible to support them and help with the cash flow issues they are experiencing.”

At 75 per cent, Stockport is ahead of the UK average of processing payments where more than £7.59 billion has been paid out to 614,181 business properties, which is 61 per cent of funding allocated to all local authorities.

Eligible businesses can submit their application online where additional guidance is provided for people who don’t know their Business rates account number

For more information on the grants and other support available for businesses in Stockport, please visit Stockport Council’s dedicated coronavirus business pages.