Agenda item

To consider adoption of the COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund Scheme (Second Round) and to delegated authority to the Head of Finance and Asset Management, in consultation with the Lead Member for Finance and Asset Management, to decide on how unspent funds were dealt with. 

1.      That the COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund Scheme (Second Round), as attached to the report at Appendix A, be ADOPTED.

2.      That authority be delegated to the Head of Finance and Asset Management, in consultation with the Lead Member for Finance and Asset Management, to decide on the allocation of any unspent funds before September 2022.  

25.1           The report of the Head of Finance and Asset Management, circulated at Pages No. 157-169, sought approval for the COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund Scheme (Second Round) as well as approval for the decision on the allocation of unspent funds, after all applications had been assessed, to be delegated to the Head of Finance and Asset Management in consultation with the Lead Member for Finance and Asset Management.

25.2           The Revenues and Benefits Manager advised that the government had first announced the COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund (CARF) in March 2021; however, a change to primary legislation was required to deliver the fund which had meant Councils had not been provided with any guidance or notification of their funding allocation until 15 December 2021. The Council was keen to provide support as quickly as possible for businesses and an initial CARF scheme had been agreed under urgency powers by the Chief Executive in consultation with the Lead Members for Economic Development/Promotion and Finance and Asset Management in January 2022. Despite a lot of outreach work with businesses identified as being eligible for support, the Council had only been able to award £214,724.82 of its allocation – it was therefore proposed to launch a second round CARF scheme. According to government guidance, billing authorities could design their own schemes as they were best able to understand the specific economic needs of the area; however, it must not award relief to ratepayers who for the same period either were, or would have been, eligible for expanded retail discount, the nursery discount or the airport and ground operations support scheme; not award relief to a hereditament for a period when it was unoccupied, other than those which had closed temporarily due to the government’s advice on COVID-19; and direct support towards ratepayers who had been adversely affected by the pandemic and had been unable to adapt to that impact. The Council had until 30 September to allocate the funding but it was felt there was a chance there may not be enough applications which was the reason for the recommendation that authority be delegated to decide what to do with any unspent funds.

25.3           During the brief discussion which ensued, a Member asked what kind of things might be suggested for spending the money and the Revenues and Benefits Manager advised that other local authorities had taken the approach of identifying businesses that might qualify through the rating list and then awarded them the relief. A Member suggested that there could be a lot of Officer time taken up by identifying businesses that qualified but had not wished to apply for themselves. The Revenues and Benefits Manager confirmed that, in the first funding round, the Council had tried all kinds of communication channels to get the messages out but still there had not been many applications. She undertook to consider whether some of those messages could be ‘freshened up’ for the second round. New applicants would need to demonstrate they had been severely financially impacted by the pandemic and that they had been unable to adapt but this was likely to be in the form of accounts, bank statements and management accounts for previous years and bank statements and management accounts for the current year so should not be too onerous. A Member questioned whether they had to have been affected by the lockdowns or whether it could be the more general issues in the economy and the Revenues and Benefits Manager advised that the pandemic was 2020/21 and the current scheme applied to business rates for 2021/22 so people had to prove they were impacted after April 2021.

25.4           One Member was against the recommendation and felt the Council should not use its resources to chase businesses that did not apply for funding. Upon being put to the vote, it was