Decision details

With the approval of the Chairman of Growth, Environment, and Resources Committee, the urgency procedure, special urgency procedure, and waiver of call-in procedure have been invoked to suspend the requirement to publish notice of the decision for 28 days, to suspend the requirement to publish the decision for five days, and to subject the decision to a three day call-in period. These procedures have been invoked due to the nature of the scheme, the receipt of final guidance for its delivery, and the importance of it getting to its intended recipients as quickly as possible who are in financial difficulty due to COVID-19.

The Cabinet Member:

1.         Approved the additional payment of grants as requested by government and as set out by the full guidance provided by government departments including the additional categories as referred to in paragraphs 7.4 to 7.5 under the councils discretionary powers;

2.         Instructed officers to ensure that the payments are processed in accordance with the agreed schemes for the qualifying properties and rebilling takes place at the earliest opportunity and that any further categories as advised by government to be included within the scheme are also processed at the earliest opportunity;

Due to the coronavirus outbreak the government have over the last few Months, commencing with the Chancellors budget on 11th March and culminating in his further budget on the 25th November and the Prime Ministers announcements on the 31st October, made significant changes to the level of support they are providing to business within certain sectors.

As the major reliefs are again only for a limited period the Government is not changing the primary legislation covering the reliefs available to properties. Instead the Government will, in line with the eligibility criteria set out in the guidance, reimburse local authorities that use their discretionary relief powers, under section 47 of the Local Government Finance Act 1988 (as amended) to grant relief. The reimbursement to authorities will be provided by payments to be credited to the general fund with grants under section 31 of the Local government Act 2003.

The effect of the announcements on the 31st October has resulted in the following addition to grants and reliefs already approved for 2020/21 – Additional Restrictions Grant:

None have been considered as there are no other realistic options to deal with this issue.

None.

There are no additional documents.