Wiltshire Council has responded to claims it is "too slow" at giving out Government funding to businesses in need of cash.

Salisbury Chamber of Commerce says it has been contacted by a number of businesses in the city who are struggling to access Covid grants.

This is because, compared to other councils elsewhere in the country, Wiltshire seems more reluctant to give money out, a spokesperson from the Chamber has said.

The council admitted it has received "a small number of complaints" but says none have been upheld, which is "evidence of a successful rollout".

'Too slow'

A spokesperson from Salisbury Chamber of Commerce said: "Across the country there seems to be different criteria that different local authorities are using to interpret the Government rules and the consequence of that is that the ARG [Additional Restrictions Grant] payments are being declined or taking a long time to come through.

"Some local authorities seem to be quicker at paying out, some are more flexible and some aren't."

According to the Chamber, Wiltshire Council is being "too slow" at processing applications and approving payments and, as a result of that, a number of businesses in Salisbury are still waiting for their Restart Grant - a one-off payment to allow them to reopen.

"Businesses have spent quite a lot of money to reopen knowing that the Restart Grant was coming but only yesterday they received an email with further information which makes me think we're not going to get anything until at least May," the spokesman added.

When asked when businesses in Salisbury can expect to receive that payment, Wiltshire Council said it could not provide a definite timeframe because each case is different.

It said £11.8m worth of one-off grants have already been paid out.

Council's statement in full

Andy Brown, Corporate Director of Resources and Deputy Chief Executive, said: “We have approved 31,400 business grants totalling more than £156m so far during the pandemic, including £12.07m in Additional Restrictions Grants (ARGs), and in this week alone, £11.8m of Restart Grants.

“Our officers have been working round the clock in difficult circumstances to support Wiltshire businesses throughout the past year and we are incredibly proud of what they have achieved.

“The Government has been proactively monitoring the business grant distribution progress of all local authorities, and has raised no concerns to us regarding our progress or processes compared with other local authorities. We have had a very small number of complaints from businesses about the grant awards process, but none of these have been upheld, which is evidence of a successful rollout.

“The new Restart Grants have replaced the Local Restrictions Support Grants (LRSG) that we have paid to thousands of businesses, but we are obliged to gather extra information for the new grant to prevent fraud, and we have written to all businesses that received a LRSG to advise them of this to enable us to process their applications.

“We will also be opening the Restart Grants for new applications within the next week.

“We’re very pleased with the success of the business grants rollout, and we will continue to do all we can to support Wiltshire businesses as they recover from the pandemic.”

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