Newark and Sherwood District Council today hits the £50m mark in grants and support payments to businesses to help them stay afloat during the covid pandemic

Today, Newark and Sherwood District Council announced that it had issued over £50m in grants and support payments to local business since, March 27, 2020.

Supporting local business has been an important part of the district council’s response to the covid-19 pandemic.

It said reaching the milestone of £50m support for local business underlines its commitment to the local economy.

The support offered has ranged from practical advice on how to run businesses in a covid-19 secure way through to financial support in the form of grants and support payments.

“As soon as businesses were told to close, the district council acted quickly by using its own financial resources," said district council leader David Lloyd.

"Payments started immediately on March 27, 2020, which meant the district council was able to pay out around £7.45m before any money came through from central government.

“This translated into help for businesses facing uncertainty and potential hardship, allowing them to plan for the future and potentially remain afloat.

“As a district council, it was really important that we acted quickly to help our local business community. We felt that, whilst other district councils needed to wait for the funding to clear from central government, we could act swiftly to give our business owners some peace of mind and certainty in what proved to be a challenging world.”

1804 Property Solutions tweeted about how the council had helped them: “Once again, @NSDCouncil show how brilliantly focussed they are on helping businesses in the area. Phone call from Karen reminding me to apply for the restart grant and 48 hours later the money is in the bank, outstanding service thank you.”

Whilst on Facebook, Newark Air Museum said: “Throughout the last 12 months your grants department have been superb and extremely supportive; which has helped us tremendously in these challenging times.”

If your business is eligible for the current round of Restart Grants and Additional Restrictions Grants, note that applications need to be completed by June 30, 2021.

You can find out more about the work the district council does with local business by visiting www.newark-sherwooddc.gov.uk or by following it on Linkedin, Facebook or Twitter.