A CORONAVIRUS funding scheme, designed to help businesses which had 'slipped through the net' of other government help, should be extended according to Oxford's city council.
The council's leader, Susan Brown has written to Alok Sharma, the government's secretary of state for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy to explain why it thinks a fund called the Discretionary Grant Scheme should be extended, and how.
The scheme was aimed at small businesses which did not pay business rates, the measure the government used to dish out other funding.
READ AGAIN about how businesses felt about missing out on Covid funding earlier this year
In her letter to the government, Ms Brown said the £1.419m given to the city council from the Discretionary Grant fund to hand out in Oxford has been oversubcribed.
Meanwhile, two other pots of coronavirus business funding: the Small Business Fund Grant and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant are undersubscribed in Oxford, with £3m cash going spare.
Ms Brown has asked the government to allow this spare cash to be transferred over to the discretionary scheme, so it can give a boost to businesses in need.
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