Agenda item

Report from the Strategic Director of Finance and Customer Services.

Recommendations:

1.    Approve the Councils proposed use of the COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund (CARF).

2.    That the authority to make any final further payments to ensure that the Fund is fully utilised is delegated to the Strategic Director – Finance and Customer Services, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, Community Safety & Finance and the Leader of the Council.

Consideration was given to the report which explained that on 25th March, 2021, the Government announced a new COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund (CARF) of £1.5 billion. However, the guidance on how the relief could be utilised was only released on 15th December, 2021.

The guidance stated that the Fund was to be made available to support those businesses affected by the pandemic but that were ineligible for existing support linked to business rates, such as through the Government’s Extended Retail Relief Scheme. The Council’s allocation of the fund is £4,851,486 and is available to provide businesses with business rates relief for the financial year 2021/22. It is a discretionary fund so the Council must design a scheme that utilises the grant fund to provide the relief.

The proposed scheme would provide business rate relief of 50% of the business rates bill up to a maximum of £6k. If a business met the eligibility criteria, the business would then have its business rates bill re-issued, taking account of the rates relief awarded. The scheme will open for applications from 1st March, 2022, through to 30th April, 2022. If there was a residual balance remaining once all successful applications had been reviewed and their initial award calculated, it would be distributed across all successful applications to maximise the use of the grant. To enable that, either the £6k cap or 50% of business rates level would be increased, whichever produced the best fit with the Councils available funding.

Resolved:-

1.    That Cabinet approve the Councils proposed use of the COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund (CARF.)

2.    That the authority to make any final further payments to ensure that the Fund is fully utilised be delegated to the Strategic Director, Finance and Customer Services, in consultation with the Cabinet Member for Corporate Services, Community Safety & Finance and the Leader of the Council.