Sunderland's £12m business support bill
The funding – from the Government's £5bn Restart Scheme – has been welcomed by local authority leaders.
Latest figures from the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy show Sunderland City Council had issued £12.1m in grants to 1,693 businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors under the scheme up to the end of May.
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Hide AdThe cash came from a £13m pot given to the council – leaving £867,696 still to distribute by the end of July.
The scheme offers grants up to £6,000 for non-essential retail businesses and £18,000 for firms in the hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym sectors.
Nationally, £2.6bn had been passed on to more than 340,000 businesses by the end of May.
Business leaders have complained some councils have been too slow to pass on the money.
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Hide AdAndrew Goodacre, chief executive of the British Independent Retailers Association, said: "Some local authorities still have money to hand out to hard-hit businesses. They were meant to be Restart grants, in line with the reopening of so-called non-essential retail on April 12."
The Local Government Association, which represents the country's councils, said stringent checks had to be done on businesses before payments were issued.
A spokesman said: "Councils have had to come to terms with a rapidly changing landscape and guidance with different grants applying to different time periods and lockdowns but are working fast to ensure businesses receive funding as quickly as possible.”