Coronavirus: 91 per cent of Melton borough businesses get their support grants

Melton Borough Council say they have paid out more than £6million in grants but they say about 450 other businesses which they believe are eligible for the payments have not yet come forward to apply.

The information has been released after several local businesses contacted the Melton Times to say they hadn’t yet received their money almost three weeks after applying and that they feared for their futures.

With small businesses closed during the social isolation lockdown, the grants were announced last month by chancellor Rishi Sunak to help keep them afloat with the government also pledging to pay 80 per cent of the wages of staff.

Local authorities are charged with processing and paying out the business grants and Melton Council said it almost immediately wrote to all 979 eligible businesses inviting them to submit an online application form, which went live on March 31.

A council spokesperson told the Melton Times: “Since then we have received 680 applications of which 512 have matched with our records and have been processed as quickly as possible and we are working to make further contact with the remaining businesses who have yet to apply.

“There are currently around 450 businesses we believe that are eligible that have not contacted us in order to receive the grant.

“We have now contacted them all.

“Without the submission of the grant form we won’t have all the information we require to enable us to process these grants and make payments.”

The spokesperson added: “At this current stage we have processed 535 payments to businesses, totalling just under £6.63 million.

“This is 91 per cent of the eligible applications we have received to date.

“To ensure payments are made correctly, we undertake a series of verification and due diligence checks.

“Each case is different and our team is gathering information and running further checks to ensure all eligible business receive the correct grant funding they are entitled to.

“There have been applications which have been rejected due to the information provided on the grant form not matching our systems.

“We have contacted those businesses directly to inform them of this outcome and encouraged them to come forward if they believe themselves to be eligible.”

The borough council say that for all businesses that contact them they will collect further information and look into each case again.

In these instances, due to the additional checks that will need to occur, the process may take longer than expected.

The council spokesperson said: “We appreciate the position many businesses currently find themselves in and we want to work with the community and businesses to get these grants out the door as soon as we are physically able to.

“We are duty bound to ensure we balance this appropriately with the need to ensure appropriate checks are taking place.

“We will continue to work with businesses that come forward to ensure we are able to support them through this difficult time and we are also actively lobbying into government to highlight those businesses not currently eligible for the grant so they too can get the help they so desperately need.”

The grants will provide a lifeline for many businesses in the Melton borough, particularly the small and mediium-sized ones.

One business owner, who declined to be named, said he had applied on April for the £10,000 grant he was due but had still not received the money more than a fortnight later.

He said: “I’m running out of money and I need this money by the end of April to keep the business going.

“It’s not how much I’m owed, it’s how slow it has all been which has upet me and the lack of communication from the council.

“I know of businesses in other council areas who have received their grants in their bank accounts a couple of days after they applied for it.”