Council grants not handed out

Councils fail to hand out £1.6bn of COVID grants New figures from the Department for Business show that councils across Britain failed to hand out more than £1.6bn of emergency COVID grants to struggling businesses, causing fury in Whitehall. Craig Beaumont, of the Federation of Small Businesses, said: “We should be seeing local authorities in a big race to stop supply chain businesses going bust, yet most are still at the start line and have not got discretionary grants out the door. Full discretion has made councils afraid of making mistakes and wanting more guidance from government, while government insists all instruction has been given.”