Gift cards worth £110 to be given to 84,500 low income households in Glasgow

Gift cards worth £110 each will be given to 84,500 low income households in Glasgow to support businesses in the city.

Glasgow City Council has received over £9m from Scottish Government’s Covid Recovery Fund to allocate the cards as part of the Scotland Loves Local campaign.

The campaign aims to encourage Scots to “think local first” and support the businesses on their local high street.

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 which will be posted out in May.

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.

The Glasgow City Council leader Susan Aitken welcomed the news.

She 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.”