Leicester City Council has asked for permission to use £10m of unallocated business grants to help struggling local businesses after its lockdown was extended.
Mayor of Leicester, Sir Peter Soulsby, said the money will have to be returned to the Government under current rules.
He said he had received no reply to his initial letter sent to Matt Hancock on 10 July on this issue.
Mayor Sir Peter Soulsby said: ‘Clearly, using this £10m of business grant funding that hasn’t been allocated could help provide immediate aid to struggling businesses.
’We already have the local knowledge, businesses’ details and the payment system set up – we are just waiting for the Government for permission to use that money, to which so far we’ve received no response.’
