Over 600 Blackpool businesses were denied discretionary payment grants during pandemic

Chancellor Rishi Sunak brought in small business grants on March 11, shortly followed by a grant for businesses in the hospitality, leisure and retail sector.

Discretionary payment grants were also made available for businesses which did not meet the criteria for the two former ones.

But 665 Blackpool businesses which submitted an application for a discretionary grant were denied one, as a result of ineligibility or having already applied for another, Blackpool Council said.

A Blackpool Council spokesman said: "Successful applications for discretionary grant payments were subject to each applicant meeting the qualifying criteria.

"There were a number of reasons for the high numbers of rejected applications, all of which were associated with eligibility. For instance, many applicants had already been awarded a grant via one of the other two main grant schemes, whilst some businesses did not meet the criteria set out in the council's discretionary grant allocation policy.

"Our business support teams were eager to help as many eligible businesses as possible and worked extremely hard to ensure that payments were processed in a timely and efficient manner for those that qualified for support."