More than 280 licensed premises benefit from six-figure investment from Renfrewshire Council

Licensed premises in Renfrewshire have benefitted from more than £100,000 after their licence fees were covered by Renfrewshire Council.

During the periods of lockdown last year, many on-sales licensed premises were unable to trade. To support their recovery, the Council agreed to cover the cost of their liquor licence fee from discretionary grant funds – with a total of 281 premises benefitting from the investment.

This forms a further part of the support provided by the Council during the pandemic, with Council teams working tirelessly to award more than £53million in business grants and its Business Gateway team continuing to offer tailored assistance and lifeline support for start-up and established businesses.

Councillor Andy Steel, Convener of Renfrewshire Licensing Board, said: “The Coronavirus pandemic has been hugely challenging for premises due to their inability to trade for an extended period of time so we want to support them where we can.

“Businesses who were not purely off-sales did not get the benefit from their liquor licence last year, so we decided as a Council to reimburse them their annual fee to support their recovery.

“It’s important that we do what we can to support our businesses in Renfrewshire and I’m glad that this was able to add to the millions of pounds in grant funding that we have awarded to businesses in Renfrewshire during the pandemic.” The annual liquor licence fee is due every October and applies to all premises with a licence to sell alcohol.