A ROW has broken out over a government grant to support businesses in Southampton.

Southampton City Council has been asked to explain how it distributed the Additional Restrictions Support Grant to struggling businesses hit by the pandemic. 

It comes as according to national media, the authority was among those which handed out less than 1% of their allocation of the grant as of January 18.

Leader of the opposition Cllr Dan Fitzhenry urged the council to clarify.

It comes as the authority said it was given £5m in grant in December last year and by January 17,  2021 had administered 16 grant payments valued at £21,344.

Cllr Fitzhenry urged the council to “get the scheme up and running” to support local businesses.

But the city council said that while some local authorities decided to provide larger one-off payments to eligible businesses, Southampton City Council had decided to provide ongoing monthly payments.

Cllr Dan Fitzhenry said: “It is extremely disappointing that our Labour council is one of the worst in the country for distributing additional restrictions grants to our local businesses. The council need to get this scheme up and running. ”

Hitting back, Cllr Stephen Barnes Andrews, cabinet member for finance said: “In December 2020 we were given £5m to issue the grant by March 2022. It was made clear by government that no further funding would be issued, and therefore we had to carefully consider how to administer this to eligible businesses in the most impactful way.We have chosen to begin by providing ongoing monthly payments, which will continue throughout the spring and summer as they reopen, as well as providing targeted supplementary one-off payments. We are targeting businesses that are most in needand this scheme is being expanded each week.”