Agenda item

To consider the requirements of the business grants post payment assurance framework and acknowledge the impact on the Internal Audit plan

21.1          The report of the Head of Finance and Asset Management, circulated at Pages No. 110-113, sought to raise awareness of the significant ongoing work associated with the business grant scheme and the impact that this would have on the internal audit plan as staff resources were redeployed to meet the requirement. The Committee was asked to note the requirements of the business grants post payment assurance framework and acknowledge the impact on the internal audit plan.

21.2          The Head of Finance and Asset Management explained that, over the first five months of the financial year, the Council had been responsible for administering a significant amount of business grants as part of the response measures activated to meet the impact of the coronavirus pandemic. The business grant schemes had now closed to new applications but there remained a significant piece of work to ensure all applicants were compliant with all parameters of the various grant schemes; whilst the Council carried out a number of relevant checks prior to payments of grants, the framework set out by the government required further checks to be made. The resources necessary to undertake those checks had been assessed and significant additional resources would be needed to fulfil the requirement. When discussing the deployment of resources, the Management Team had agreed that the benefits of retaining one full-time equivalent from the Internal Audit team to oversee this important piece of work outweighed the risk to the internal audit plan in the second half of the year.

21.3          The Committee was advised that, in response to lockdown measures, the government had introduced a range of support measures for businesses affected by the lockdown. Of the financial measures introduced, local government was specifically responsible for the administration of two of them; the award of business rates relief for retail premises and the award of a range of grants targeted at specific sectors within the business community. To date, the Council had awarded over £10.3 million of additional business rates relief in the current financial year. A range of business grants schemes had been administered by the Council during the year including: Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants; Small Business Grants; and Discretionary Grants. All those schemes closed to new applications on 28 August although there remained a few grants being processed within the scheme - to date £17,010,000 had been paid to 1,461 grant applications and £862,980 paid to 87 discretionary grant applications. Significant resources had been redeployed from a number of services across the Council to meet the demand but, as the schemes had drawn to a close, the majority of those resources had been released with only a few key individuals retained to complete the process of grant payments. The post assurance phase would now have to begin, and this would, again, require significant resources to ensure it was delivered within the scheme requirements. The work undertaken upfront had reduced the post assurance work required; however, there would still be a significant amount of work going forward. Staff from Internal Audit had played a crucial role in the initial payment of grants and the development of payment assurance plans and, whilst staff were being identified from Corporate Services and Finance and Asset Management to undertake the role of assessors, it was felt that an Internal Auditor would be best placed to act as the senior assessor to oversee the day to day work of the group. In due course, self-isolation payments would be made by local authorities so the payments team would have to be stood up again for those.

21.4          A Member questioned who determined how the discretionary payments were made to businesses; she was concerned that a number of businesses which were run from home had not received any grants even though they had no income but still had costs to pay out. In response, the Head of Finance and Asset Management acknowledged that some businesses had not been eligible for the original grant scheme and, unfortunately, the parameters of the discretionary scheme set by the government had not left very much discretion for local authorities. It had been suggested that there may be further grants from government, but the parameters for those had not yet been provided; he assumed they would likely be directed at the hospitality and leisure sectors.

21.5          Accordingly, it was

                 RESOLVED           That the requirements of the business grants post payment                             assurance framework be NOTED and the impact on the                                             internal audit plan acknowledged.