Businesses in Bournemouth, Christchurch and Poole received financial help amounting to £19 million on Friday of last week (22 January).

Utilising the funding provided by Government to support businesses through the latest period of restrictions, BCP Council made nearly 7,500 transactions.

Cllr Philip Broadhead, deputy leader and portfolio holder for economy at BCP Council, said, “We believe we are one of the first council’s in the country to launch, review and make payments for the latest grant schemes and I’m delighted that we’ve been able to get this support out the door so quickly to those businesses that desperately need it.

“Our priority for the next few weeks will be to review all the applications that have been received for our ARG Stream 2 discretionary scheme. Once this is completed, we aim to make payments as soon as possible from the nearly £2 million fund of extra support we’ve set aside specifically for local priority industries. We are also expecting further discretionary funding from Government and will be exploring further streams of support to help businesses bounce back and reopen as soon as it is safe to do.”

More details and the full eligibility criteria for the various grant schemes is available online: www.bcpcouncil.gov.uk/financialsupport.