Coronavirus (COVID-19): local authority discretionary fund - information for local authorities

How grants will be provided

Local authorities will be responsible for delivering grants to businesses based on the allocation that they receive from the £120 million discretionary funding pot.

Allocation of funds to local authorities

We have worked closely with CoSLA to agree a methodology for determining individual allocations to local authorities. For the initial allocation of £30 million announced by the Scottish Government in November CoSLA Leaders’ Group agreed that the allocation of the initial £30 million to local authorities through the Discretionary Fund was paid on the following basis:

• £25 million to be distributed among all 32 councils, calculated based on the proportion of VAT/PAYE registered companies in Scotland that are registered in each local authority area according to the Inter-Departmental Business Register as at 13 March 2020
• £5 million to be distributed among the 11 local authority areas subject to Tier 4 restrictions on 20 November 2020 calculated based on the proportion of VAT/PAYE registered companies that comprise the business base across these 11 council areas according to the Inter-Departmental Business Register as at 13 March 2020

For ease of administration local authority allocations from the £90 million top up has been directed through the 2020/21 General Revenue Grant and should be retained for you to use flexibly to support businesses in your local authority. This approach has been agreed by CoSLA Leaders’ Group.

Your allocation from the original £30 million of the Local Authority Discretionary Fund was provided via grant offer issued on 9 December and we ask that councils continue to adhere to the conditions of the grant as set out in the offer letter, in particular this funding should be used specifically for the purposes of providing financial support to businesses in the form of direct grant payments. For ease of administration your allocation from the £90 million top up has been directed through the 2020/21 General Revenue Grant and should be retained for you to use flexibly to support businesses in your local authority. In order to reduce the administrative burden on local authorities and in light of this funding being provided to support local businesses, local authorities are asked to provide high level proposals as to how they will utilise the funding with outcome reports to follow illustrating final usage.