£110 in gift cards for over 84,000 Glasgow households will support city businesses

Glasgow City Council has been given over £9million by the Scottish Government to allocate Scotland Loves Local gift cards that can only be used in the city by residents from low-income households.

This funding - which means that over 84,500 households in the city will each receive £110 worth of the gift cards to be spent in registered businesses in Glasgow - comes from the Scottish Government's £80million Covid Recovery Fund.

The Scotland Loves Local campaign looks to encourage those who live in Scotland to think local first and support the businesses on their local high streets.

Data from the council tax system will be used to identify households entitled to Council Tax Reduction (CTR) at an agreed date or date range, which in turn, will be used to identify which households would be eligible to receive the pre-paid card.

There are 184 businesses in Glasgow currently registered to accept the gift cards, and the council will now work to encourage other businesses to register and benefit from the scheme.

Councillor Susan Aitken, Leader of Glasgow City Council, said: "The Scotland Loves Local gift card scheme will benefit many households in Glasgow as well providing a boost to local businesses as we recover from the pandemic. We will be encouraging as many businesses in Glasgow to sign up to the scheme so we can support these - especially small and medium-sized companies - as much as we can."