Central Bedfordshire Council has paid close to £8.4m in Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) payments to local businesses. The top-up payments have been made to over 850 businesses who previously received an Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) 1, 2 or 3.

To date, Central Bedfordshire has paid out over £80 million in grants in over 11,000 separate grant payments to more than 5,000 businesses since March 2020 when the pandemic began.

Now that all funding has been distributed, the Council can access further business support funding from the Government in the coming months.

Executive Member for Corporate Resources, Councillor David Shelvey, said: "We are delighted to have spent our full funding allocation from the Government to be able to further support local businesses. We are working on a new scheme for July that will recognise more sectors eligible to access financial support. This summer is key for businesses reopening as they navigate a new normal.”

Details on a new business grants scheme will be published on our website in July.