Council pays out £5 million in restart business grants

Hastings Borough Council has now distributed £5 million of restart grants for local businesses impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

The Restart Grant scheme is for non-essential retail, hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym businesses across Hastings and St Leonards, to help them 'restart' as COVID-19 restrictions begin to lift.

A council spokesperson said,

"729 businesses have now received payment, and we have paid out 76% of the funding the council expects to pay out for this Restart Grant scheme.

"Payments have been slower than usual with this round of funding, because of the increased amount of fraud checks put in place by the Government, but we've still managed to pay out to a huge amount of businesses over the last three weeks. We want to make sure that the money goes to those businesses who really need it, and these checks are essential to do this.

"We also know there are still businesses who may be eligible that have not yet applied, so if you think your business may be eligible for funding, please check our website where you can find further information about all funding schemes currently open: www.hastings.gov.uk/covid19-funding."