The Scottish government has announced an extra £220m of financial support for businesses, including grants for additional properties.
The package, which follows an initial £2.2bn of support from the UK government, includes £120m to extend the Small Business Grant scheme to ensure rate payers will be eligible for a 75% grant on all additional properties beyond their first one – which is eligible for a 100% grant.
A further £100m fund is being made available to protect viable micro and SME businesses – and self-employed people - in distress due to the coronavirus. This fund will be channelled through local authorities and enterprise agencies to target newly self-employed people and businesses who are ineligible for other Scottish government or UK government schemes.
Applications for the £100m fund will be open by the end of the month, and the new arrangements for the Small Business Grant will be in place to receive applications on 5 May.
Finance secretary Kate Forbes said: “We are doing everything we can to support business at this difficult time and we continue to listen to and engage with the sector.
“Our support for business now exceeds the £2.2bn passed on from the UK government and actively works to fill the gaps in the UK schemes.
“Around 100,000 businesses in total are already eligible for our small business grants and from today we will be extending that scheme in response to feedback from businesses on the frontline of this economic crisis.
“With UK government support not being available until June, we are going further to secure the future economic viability of Scottish firms and applications will be open by the end of the month.”
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