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Scully spoke at The Morning Advertiser’s MA Leaders Club conference last week (Thursday 24 February) at Fabric, Farringdon, central London and urged operators to apply for the funding if they hadn’t already.
The Government website stated last month (10 February), the funding has been allocated to councils in England for them to provide businesses in need in their local area.
When broken down into regions, the southwest was allocated the most amount of funding (£123,887,322) and has only spent 12% of it, leaving £119,238,333.
This was followed by the southeast with £93,251,799 available and has spent 15%, meaning the amount left is £79,161,787.
Region allocation
The northwest was allocated £78,209,294, has spent almost a fifth (18%) and has £41,731,435 remaining.
Similarly, London was given £77,521,455 but has only used 8% of it, meaning it has £71,634,667 still to spend.
The east of England region has spent 12% of their £70,421,346, leaving £61,865,433 to be allocated.
Yorkshire and the Humber has £51,212,174 (21%) of its £64,685,016 allocation remaining and the West Midlands has spent a similar proportion (18%) of its £50,709,294, leaving £41,731,435.
The East Midlands was allocated £46,413,423 but has £39,405,661 left, meaning it has used 15%.
Government strategy
The north east was allocated the least amount at £30,176,406 and has used 12% of it, with £26,454,782 still to be distributed.
At the conference, Scully said: “That support is still available to those who haven’t applied and as of last week, there are still £556m worth of Hospitality and Leisure Grants to be distributed by local authorities.
“Local authorities have also got remaining another £300m in discretionary funding as well.
“The Government is working with local authorities, I’m ringing them up and trying to see what their biggest barriers are [when] handing out that money because cashflow is absolutely everything.”
Scully went on to outline how the Government wants to support the sector, mentioning the Hospitality Strategy, which was launched last year, and the Hospitality Sector Council.
He added: “You guys know how to drive footfall, you guys know how to drive custom and I want to be able to support you in being able to do that rather than wagging a finger and telling you how to do your own job.”
