Borders-based SNP MSP Paul Wheelhouse has welcomed new figures outlining the scale of Scottish Government funding to tackle the impact of the coronavirus pandemic.

As part of £3.8 billion in extra spending to tackle coronavirus, the Scottish Government has committed to a £350 million package of emergency funding for communities to help tackle harms caused by the pandemic.

A new online dashboard, published this week, has outlined the financial support so far allocated to the Scottish Borders.

The Scottish Government funding in the Borders has included:

• £576,000  from the Food Fund, to support those who would otherwise be unable to access food through the usual routes.

• £293,357  from the Wellbeing Fund, to support organisations providing important services to people most affected by the coronavirus pandemic.

• £385,135  from the Supporting Communities Fund, for community anchor organisations to help support local responses to the pandemic.

• £375, 936 from the Third Sector Resilience Fund, to support third sector organisations that deliver services and products but find themselves in financial difficulties directly as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

Commenting, SNP MSP Paul Wheelhouse said:

“The Coronavirus pandemic has self-evidently caused enormous pressure on households and communities across Scotland to add to its obvious health and economic impacts.

“The Scottish Government provided swift and substantial financial help to households in the Borders – supporting frontline organisations and communities’ and householders’ access to food.

“We now know that change can happen very rapidly – and that can be hugely challenging, but communities have responded magnificently - and we must build on that momentum and learn from the approaches developed in response to this crisis to achieve our long-term goals of reducing and hopefully eliminating food poverty and other sources of inequality in our society.”