Coronavirus: Pandemic open businesses get 38% of voucher spend

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 £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 £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 (£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 £54.

The busiest day of transactions and spend was Sunday 14 November 2021, with 104,477 transactions and £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.