NICOLA Sturgeon is “exploring all options” to try and speed up business grants getting into the bank accounts of traders amid speculation the private sector could take some of the burden off over-stretched councils.
The First Minister said that “opportunities to streamline” funding being handed out by councils is also under active consideration.
The Herald on Sunday revealed that discussions are being held between the Scottish Government, local councils and other organisations to overhaul the model used to dish out the vital support for businesses – with many facing lengthy waits to receive entitlements.
The latest statistics show that the Scottish Government has paid out less than one tenth of funding it has promised to businesses – delivering just £55 million of the £715 million announced by ministers.
READ MORE: Private sector could give out stuttering business grants
The First Minister was asked about the issue at Holyrood by Tory MSP Maurice Golden and confirmed all options are being explored, along with improving processes for councils to hand out funding.
He said: “Reports on the ground indicate councils are being overwhelmed trying to process business support payments with SNP ministers having created a complicated and convoluted support system – so much so, SNP ministers are apparently considering outsourcing some schemes away from councils.
“Can the First Minister confirm if this is the case and if so, which support payments will be outsourced.”
The First Minster said: “What I can confirm is we are exploring all options to make sure we get money to businesses as quickly as possible – something that the Conservatives have called upon us to do and I think, rightly so.
“We have also previously and will continue to look at the administrative support we give to local authorities to help them allocate money as quikcly as possible.”
Ms Sturgeon added: “We do have quite a large number of funding streams for different sectors and different parts of the economy. That is in large part due to the plethora of calls for different funding streams to be allocated to different parts of the economy.
“We will also continue to look for opportunities to streamline that as we go forward. It is really important that businesses get money as quickly as possible.”
Why are you making commenting on The Herald only available to subscribers?
It should have been a safe space for informed debate, somewhere for readers to discuss issues around the biggest stories of the day, but all too often the below the line comments on most websites have become bogged down by off-topic discussions and abuse.
heraldscotland.com is tackling this problem by allowing only subscribers to comment.
We are doing this to improve the experience for our loyal readers and we believe it will reduce the ability of trolls and troublemakers, who occasionally find their way onto our site, to abuse our journalists and readers. We also hope it will help the comments section fulfil its promise as a part of Scotland's conversation with itself.
We are lucky at The Herald. We are read by an informed, educated readership who can add their knowledge and insights to our stories.
That is invaluable.
We are making the subscriber-only change to support our valued readers, who tell us they don't want the site cluttered up with irrelevant comments, untruths and abuse.
In the past, the journalist’s job was to collect and distribute information to the audience. Technology means that readers can shape a discussion. We look forward to hearing from you on heraldscotland.com
Comments & Moderation
Readers’ comments: You are personally liable for the content of any comments you upload to this website, so please act responsibly. We do not pre-moderate or monitor readers’ comments appearing on our websites, but we do post-moderate in response to complaints we receive or otherwise when a potential problem comes to our attention. You can make a complaint by using the ‘report this post’ link . We may then apply our discretion under the user terms to amend or delete comments.
Post moderation is undertaken full-time 9am-6pm on weekdays, and on a part-time basis outwith those hours.
Read the rules hereLast Updated:
Report this comment Cancel