Eat Out To Help Out: 111 Moray businesses registered for scheme, with £489,000 saved by customers
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MORAY diners saved nearly half a million pounds using the Eat Out To Help Out scheme, newly-released Treasury figures have shown.
The UK Government scheme, which ran throughout August, saw 111 Moray businesses sign up, with 85,000 meals discounted – saving local diners £489,000.
The average saving per meal in Moray was £5.78.
The offer saw customers get 50 per cent off their meal – up to a maximum of £10 – on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays throughout August.
Across Scotland, 8543 restaurants, pubs and cafés signed up for the scheme, with a total of 6,333,000 discounted meals saving Scottish diners £38,607,000. The average saving per meal Scotland-wide was £6.10.
Numbers are likely to rise, with eateries having until the end of September to claim back money on the discounted meals.
UK-wide, the number of people eating out remained down on 2019 in the first week of August, despite the scheme, by 11 per cent. However, in the last week of August, the number of people eating out compared with the same week last year was up by 63 per cent.
Moray's Conservative MP Douglas Ross praised the scheme, introduced by chancellor Rishi Sunak.
He said: “Rishi Sunak’s Eat Out to Help Out scheme has been a tremendous success across the UK – and I am delighted to see so many people took advantage of the offer here in Moray.
“The discount deal brought many more people through the doors of restaurants and cafés that were struggling due to the pandemic.
“This will have protected jobs and provided a very welcome boost to business owners in the hospitality sector - as well as saving customers some money.
“It is just one of the measures introduced by the UK Government to support the nation through the coronavirus crisis."
