Calendar An icon of a desk calendar. Cancel An icon of a circle with a diagonal line across. Caret An icon of a block arrow pointing to the right. Email An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of the Facebook "f" mark. Google An icon of the Google "G" mark. Linked In An icon of the Linked In "in" mark. Logout An icon representing logout. Profile An icon that resembles human head and shoulders. Telephone An icon of a traditional telephone receiver. Tick An icon of a tick mark. Is Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes. Is Not Public An icon of a human eye and eyelashes with a diagonal line through it. Pause Icon A two-lined pause icon for stopping interactions. Quote Mark A opening quote mark. Quote Mark A closing quote mark. Arrow An icon of an arrow. Folder An icon of a paper folder. Breaking An icon of an exclamation mark on a circular background. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Caret An icon of a caret arrow. Clock An icon of a clock face. Close An icon of the an X shape. Close Icon An icon used to represent where to interact to collapse or dismiss a component Comment An icon of a speech bubble. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Comments An icon of a speech bubble, denoting user comments. Ellipsis An icon of 3 horizontal dots. Envelope An icon of a paper envelope. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Camera An icon of a digital camera. Home An icon of a house. Instagram An icon of the Instagram logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. Magnifying Glass An icon of a magnifying glass. Search Icon A magnifying glass icon that is used to represent the function of searching. Menu An icon of 3 horizontal lines. Hamburger Menu Icon An icon used to represent a collapsed menu. Next An icon of an arrow pointing to the right. Notice An explanation mark centred inside a circle. Previous An icon of an arrow pointing to the left. Rating An icon of a star. Tag An icon of a tag. Twitter An icon of the Twitter logo. Video Camera An icon of a video camera shape. Speech Bubble Icon A icon displaying a speech bubble WhatsApp An icon of the WhatsApp logo. Information An icon of an information logo. Plus A mathematical 'plus' symbol. Duration An icon indicating Time. Success Tick An icon of a green tick. Success Tick Timeout An icon of a greyed out success tick. Loading Spinner An icon of a loading spinner. Facebook Messenger An icon of the facebook messenger app logo. Facebook An icon of a facebook f logo. Facebook Messenger An icon of the Twitter app logo. LinkedIn An icon of the LinkedIn logo. WhatsApp Messenger An icon of the Whatsapp messenger app logo. Email An icon of an mail envelope. Copy link A decentered black square over a white square.

UK businesses claimed £849 million through Eat Out to Help Out… while Aberdeen lost out on millions due to local lockdown

Eat Out To Help Out was designed to support the hospitality industry
Eat Out To Help Out was designed to support the hospitality industry

Businesses across the UK claimed £849 million through the Eat Out to Help Out scheme – while Aberdeen hospitality venues lost out on millions of pounds worth of support because of localised lockdown measures in August.

New data from Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs (HMRC) shows almost 50,000 pubs, cafes and restaurants took part in the UK Government initiative.

Discounts were provided for more than 160 million meals.

The scheme was designed to help provide a financial boost to companies who had struggled financially with Covid-19 restrictions, but has since been criticised over fears it caused an increase in infections.

A Warwick University study noted an increase in infection clusters a week after Eat Out to Help Out commenced.

Participating businesses could use the project to offer heavily discounted meals on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays in the month of August.

The HRMC said 34% of the discounted meals were in businesses with more than 25 outlets, accounting for 27% of the total amount of cash claimed.

In September, it was revealed that £38.6m of taxpayer’s money was spent subsidising 6.3 million meals in Scotland, including £9.6m in Edinburgh, £8.2m in Glasgow, and £1.2m in Dundee.

But because of the local lockdown in Aberdeen where hospitality premises were forced to shut, just £400,000 was claimed by businesses in the constituencies of Aberdeen North, Aberdeen South, and Gordon.

Gordon includes part of Aberdeenshire, as well as the north of the Granite City, so the true figure for the locked-down area will have been even lower.

It was previously estimated if Aberdeen had full access to the scheme, the Aberdeen economy would have benefitted from £4.1m worth of government support.