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Bridging loan scheme helps refurbishment projects across Scotland
Community groups attempting to refurbish public buildings have been helped by a recently introduced bridging loan scheme.
The £1 million interest free Capital Works Bridging Loan Scheme has bridged the delays in funding being awarded to the groups by the Scotland Rural Development Programme (SRDP).
Projects such as the refurbishment of a local town hall were stalled due to cashflow problems as a result of the SRDP’s policy to release funding only once work has been completed and invoices paid off.
As a result, this created major issues for many developments and projects until the bridging loan scheme was rolled out eighteen months ago.
Donald MacLeod, chairman of the Sandness Public Hall, told Shetland News that the scheme was just brilliant:
“You need to pay your contractors first and you also need a bank statement showing that the money has left your account before the SRDP funds are released. It then takes between six and eight weeks before the grant funding arrives in your account.”
“There is no way on this earth that any public hall could finance such a thing,” he said, adding that one £168,000 refurbishment project would not have happened at all if it were not for the bridging loan.
Another project, the construction of the new Scalloway Museum, was also helped by the bridging scheme. Tony Erwood, chairman of SBFS Property Ltd, the firm charged with creating the museum, told the news provider, “Without the bridging loan the project would have folded due to cashflow problems and there would be no new Scalloway Museum.”
