A call has been made for the Government to provide more grant funding for businesses in Cornwall affected by coronavirus.

The Cornwall and Isles of Scilly Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) and Cornwall Council say that much more funding is needed for discretionary grants which will help businesses.

And the LEP said the funding could help limit the rise in unemployment being seen in Cornwall with the number of people claiming benefits rising during the lockdown period.

Cornwall has been given £13.5 million to distribute to businesses but the council said it has had 1,800 applications and another 1,600 expressions of interest.

The council has so far paid out more than £1m to businesses, but the LEP said that in order to help all those eligible Cornwall and the Isles of Scilly would need £20m.

The discretionary grant scheme was set up by the Government in response to concerns that some businesses had slipped through the gaps in earlier business support funding programmes.

Under the first funding programme Cornwall Council has paid out more than £200m to businesses across the county.

Council leader Julian German said: “Demand will outstrip the amount of money we have been allocated.

“We will continue to lobby the Government to get Cornwall’s share of funding to enable our economy to come through the pandemic as best as we can.”

Glenn Caplin, chief executive of the LEP, said: “What is really clear is that the amount of funds in that pot – £13.5 million – is not enough to meet the demand and need that is out there.

“This pot is targeted at businesses that have fallen through the gaps of other schemes.”

He said that the LEP along with the Cornwall Chamber of Commerce, Federation of Small Businesses and other groups had written to the Chancellor of the Exchequer and Cornwall’s MPs asking for more money to meet the demand.

Mr Caplin said: “The pandemic is still going on – a high proportion of businesses are still in lockdown, particularly in the tourism and retail sectors, along with their supply chain.”

Asked about the increase in unemployment in Cornwall Mr Caplin said that while Cornwall had not been hit as hard as other parts of the UK by the pandemic it had been hit hard by the economic impact.

He said: “The impact will be in the longer term because we have a reliance on sectors that have been shutdown during this whole period.

“There has been an impact on the supply chain and coastal and market towns that rely on retail for footfall and income.”

Mr Caplin said there were concerns about some towns taking a heavier hit than others and highlighted Penzance and Wadebridge as being two which stood out.

He said that it was likely that we would continue to see figures for unemployment rise saying: “Cornwall is disproportionately hardest hit.

“We are very concerned about it and we are pushing the government to provide more funding for those sectors that are hardest hit.”