MORE THAN £500,000 of support has been paid out to Wokingham borough businesses so far – and there will be additional payments to come.
Cllr John Kaiser, the council’s executive member for finance and housing, said that they wanted businesses to submit applications for its Discretionary Grants scheme.
“Wokingham Borough has been awarded £3.4m of Additional Restrictions Grant to support companies over the next 16 months and we want to make sure we listen to businesses so that we target the monies when and where it is most needed,” he said.
“With Wokingham moving into Tier 2 we are already looking at extending the current Discretionary Grants scheme to cover businesses who will continue to be impacted as a result of the additional restrictions that higher tier means.
“With Cllr Munro I have already asked officers to develop options for additional grant or other support schemes to be launched in the new-year aiming to support businesses through what is always a challenging time even without the additional impact of Covid.”
He was responding first to a question by Cllr Barrie Patman (Conservative, Shinfield Souith).
Cllr Graham Howe (Conservative, Remenham, Wargrave and Ruscombe) pointed out that many of the businesses impacted by Covid have “great dependency” on the grants.
He asked: “Can you assure us that those that are vulnerable, as a consequence of short falls in business or indeed any other families, will not suffer homelessness within the Borough of Wokingham?”
Responding, Cllr Kaiser said that the council had placed 64 households into temporary accommodation in response to the pandemic and pledged to ensure that all homeless people in the borough would have accommodation over the winter months.
“Unfortunately there will almost certainly be cases of homelessness as a result of the economic impact of Covid, but I can assure you the team will continue to do everything in its power to try and prevent them and, where unable to do so, will support the affected households,” he said.
The council has received a £675,000 grant from the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government (MHCLG). This, he said, would be used to buy five homes to house “vulnerable rough sleepers”.
“We also have received £150K in revenue funding from MHCLG to provide intensive in-reach support to our Housing First cohort for the next three years,” he added.
