Coronavirus: Pandemic open businesses get 38% of voucher spend

Image source, Pacemaker

  • Author, Clodagh Rice
  • Role, 大象传媒 News NI Business Correspondent

More than one third of Stormont's high street vouchers (38%) were spent in businesses that were not forced to close during the Covid-19 pandemic, according to official figures.

The 拢136.5m Spend Local scheme opened for applications in September 2021.

It was designed to boost so-called bricks and mortar businesses that were most affected by regulations.

Everyone aged 18 and over in Northern Ireland could apply for a 拢100 pre-paid card.

Analysis by the Northern Ireland Statistics and Research Agency (Nisra) found almost two thirds (62%) of the spend went to businesses that were forced to close.

The figures suggest 87% of the money (拢118m) was spent in retail, followed by 8% in food and accommodation and 3% in other services.

There were 3.7m individual transactions. Of this, 1.9m went to businesses required to close because of regulations.

The average spend by transaction was 拢54.

The busiest day of transactions and spend was Sunday 14 November 2021, with 104,477 transactions and 拢4m spent.

In January 2022, the Department for the Economy announced that compensation would be paid to about 6,000 applicants who either did not receive their card or had difficulty using them.