Covid: 20,000 Scottish firms destroyed by pandemic

Lobbying on gaps in financial support from the UK and Scottish governments became a “major priority” for the FSB during the lockdowns.

They said there were about 180 funds administered via a variety of organisations that were made available to certain businesses over the course of the pandemic.

The support and speed of dealing with financial support was “very much dependent on each local authority”, they said.

There were also inconsistencies in criteria for support were applied business, with the FSB giving an example of a retail business operating out of a business unit not qualifying for retail support.

Garry Clark, FSB east of Scotland development manager, said: “We had to make those arguments with local government and convince people that is actually the intention of the support.”

Only some local authorities advertised their funds, and some made up their own rules for eligibility for an initial £30m discretionary fund in 2021, before the Scottish government even issued any guidance on how to allocate it.

“There was very little appetite from the public sector to learn the lessons of how the first £30m was spent before the next £90m was allocated to them,” Mr Clark added.

He told the inquiry it was difficult to tell where the money from some business funds went.

Of the £267m pledged to get them through the Omicron wave of the virus, only £154m was actually spent, and from a £25m business ventilation fund only £1m “was spent for its intended purpose”, he said.