Graham Stuart, MP for Beverley and Holderness, has held a virtual meeting with the Chief Executive of East Riding of Yorkshire Council, Caroline Lacey, and Council Leader, Cllr Richard Burton, to discuss updates on its response to Covid-19.
Since the beginning of the Government restrictions in March, East Riding Council has experienced a surge in demand for their services, all while having to adjust to new ways of working remotely.
The Government has provided the council with additional funding of £18.7 million in two tranches and has also paid out social care grants upfront in order, to support the council’s planning and cashflow. On 13th May, an additional £600 million was made available by the Prime Minister to help care home providers across the country to reduce Covid-19’s rate of transmission in and between care homes.
Around £12 billion has been sent to local authorities as part of the Retail, Hospitality & Leisure and Small Business grants, which offered grants of either £25,000 or £10,000 to eligible businesses.
As of 17 May, East Riding Council had distributed almost £70 million of the £87 million they had been issued to an estimated 87% of eligible business properties.
Speaking after the meeting, Graham commented: “I was grateful for the opportunity to meet with Caroline Lacey and Cllr Burton to go over how the council has responded to the coronavirus pandemic.
“Council officers and other civil servants have been working incredibly hard to deliver a first-class service. ERYC’s COVID hotline has helped to co-ordinate the local response and care homes are being contacted on a daily basis to monitor outbreaks and to provide PPE if they don’t have enough.
“I know that they’ve managed to distribute business grant funding faster than many authorities across the country as well, and they confirmed that the council is working on sorting out the eligibility criteria for the Government’s new discretionary grant as a priority.
“But the meeting also gave me the opportunity to feed in concerns and issues that have been raised with me over the last few weeks.”
The discretionary grant fund is an additional £617 million which has been provided by Government to support those businesses which had previously fallen outside the scope of previous funding schemes.
Official guidance outlines that it is aimed at premises such as non-retail-based charities, B&Bs, and businesses in shared spaces, but the list is non-exhaustive and final decisions are at the councils.
The local MP’s meeting with East Riding Council followed his virtual roundtable with local charities, many of which would benefit from the new funding. Over the past 7 weeks, East Riding Council has received over 3,000 calls for financial support and over 4,000 applications for help with council tax, in addition to more than 600 requests for their Welfare Visiting Team.
