Decision details

To seek approval for the additional top-up Additional Restrictions Grant amounts to be set by business type for payment in accordance with the criteria approved in the Council’s approved Local Restrictions Business Support Scheme.

THAT:

The additional top-up Additional Restrictions Grant amounts be set by business type as detailed in paragraph 2.1 of this report as an addition to the first top up grant amounts, and the original approved scheme amounts, for payment in accordance with the criteria approved in the Council’s approved Local Restrictions Business Support Scheme.

The Council is expected by Government to award discretionary grants in line with the guidance it has published and to adopt readily available and easily understood guidance for the administration of those grants.

An alternative option is to set a different top-up grant amount for each business type to those proposed in paragraph 2.1, for example not to pay a higher amount to those businesses with property costs which are required to close but do not have a rateable value, however, this would not provide an equitable or proportionate allocation to those businesses which are severely impacted but cannot access the nationally set local restriction support grants which are only for businesses with a rateable value and would also be inconsistent with first top-up award amount.

A second option is to approve a new ARG scheme with new eligibility criteria to allocate the remaining funding. However, given the time required to devise and launch a new scheme and application process, and to complete the required eligibility assessments, it will not be possible to guarantee payments of awards by 30 June and therefore the new conditional grant funding is highly likely to be forgone.  This is not recommended as the government grant available to support businesses will not be maximised.