Issue - meetings

Small Business Discretionary Payment

Meeting: 28/05/2020 - Executive (Item 128)

128 Small Business Discretionary Payment pdf icon PDF 306 KB

Additional documents:

Decision:

That:

 

1)        Wokingham Borough Council’s Discretionary Grants Policy, relating to the Covid 19 pandemic as set out in Appendix 1 of the report, and as amended at the meeting be approved;

 

2)        the Deputy Chief Executive be delegated authority, in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Housing, to make minor amendments to the Policy as the result of any further Government guidance.

Minutes:

(Councillors Munro and Murray declared prejudicial interests in this item)

 

The Executive considered a report setting out a proposed Policy for the provision of Small Business Discretionary Payments.

 

The Executive Member for Finance and Housing advised the meeting that in response to the Covid-19 pandemic the Government had announced the provision of additional business rate support to some small businesses.  This related mainly to those businesses with fixed property related costs which had not been eligible for other grant schemes that were in place.  The Government had recognised that economic need varied across the country so although they had set some national criteria for the fund they were allowing local authorities to determine which cases to provide support to within those criteria.  The Government had also made it clear that local authorities needed to distribute the funding at the earliest opportunity which was why this item was deemed as urgent and was therefore being considered at this meeting.

 

The original guidance issued by the Government had since been superseded by a more detailed second version which was received after the agenda was published. It was also likely that further changes to the guidance would be received.   Because of this Councillor Kaiser informed the meeting that he was proposing two amendments to the Policy and an additional recommendation as set out below:

 

·         As stated in the policy discretionary grants were not subject to any formal statutory appeals process and there were no rights of appeal.  However at the bottom of page 6 of the Policy an appeal process was actually mentioned. It was therefore proposed to amend this paragraph to state that there was no appeals process; 

·         As the Government guidance had been updated on a number of occasions, and it was likely to be further amended in the future, it was also put forward that an additional recommendation delegating authority to the Deputy Chief Executive, in consultation with the Executive Member for Finance and Housing, to make minor amendments to the Policy as a result of any further Government guidance;

·         The latest version of the guidance was received over the weekend and this stated that people who had claimed as part of the self-employed income support scheme could now also apply for a discretionary grant and therefore there was also a need to reflect this change in the Policy. 

 

Councillor Kaiser highlighted that the Council’s discretion mainly related to the amount it wished to award to businesses.  As the Council had only been awarded £1.1m to cover these payments, and as a way of making the money go further, it had been decided to award a number of smaller grants i.e. £3k and £5k which would benefit smaller businesses eg dog groomers, people who work from home as well as grants of £10k and £25k.

 

Councillor Haitham Taylor commended the Council for getting the money out so promptly to businesses already as it was a real lifeline for many.  She wanted to ensure that as much as possible would be  ...  view the full minutes text for item 128