Britain has funneled £6bn to small firms via Covid-19 grants to date

Small companies in Britain have received £6.1 billion (€6.8 bilion) of a total £12 billion available in emergency grants to help them withstand the coronavirus crisis, a finance ministry spokesman said on Tuesday.

Nearly 500,000 companies have so far received grants which are worth either £10,000 or £25,000 and do not have to be repaid to the government.

The grant plan was announced last month as part of a string of measures rushed out by chancellor of the exchequer Rishi Sunak.

He has faced criticism that too few loans have been made to small firms as part of a £330 billion programme of state-backed credit.

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Sunak said on Monday that banks had approved 12,000 loans under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, up from just over 6,000 as of April 14th.

The government has also pledged to pay 80 per cent of the salaries of workers who are temporarily laid off among other measures.

- Reuters