Issue - decisions

RECORD OF URGENT DECISION ON REVISED

LOCAL AUTHORITY DISCRETIONARY GRANT POLICY

UNDER SECTION 31 OF THE LOCAL GOVERNMENT ACT 2003

Decision of:

Councillor Robertson,

Executive Councillor for Finance and Resources

Reference:

20/URGENCY/SR/15

Date of decision:

6/8/20

 Recorded on: 

6/8/20

Decision Type:

Key

Matter for Decision:

In early June 2020, the Executive Councillor agreed a local policy for distributing government-funded discretionary grants to businesses, charities and not-for-profit organisations which were not eligible for earlier Covid-19 government funds and were struggling to survive the lockdown. This has enabled the Council to distribute just over half (£573,000) of the £1.1 million available by late July, but applications have now slowed down significantly. The proposed revisions to the grant policy which require a decision are set out in section 3 of the attached report.

Why the decision had to be made (and any alternative options):

The policy needs to be revised so that a wider range of relevant businesses and other relevant organisations can be paid grants from the remaining funding before the Government closes the national scheme to applicants on 28 August 2020. Officers have considered different options including: no change; top-ups for existing grant recipients; and possible changes to applicant categories, grant banding and amounts and eligibility criteria.

The Executive Councillor’s decision(s):

Approved the proposed changes to the applicant categories, grant funding levels and eligibility criteria to be incorporated in a revised version of the Council’s Discretionary Grant Fund policy; and delegated authority to the Strategic Director to finalise the revised Discretionary Grant Fund policy and processes, approve updates and oversee application assessment and grant distribution for the final period of the grant scheme.

Reasons for the decision:

As detailed in the Officer’s report. Link to the briefing paper for the Urgent Decision regarding Revised Local Authority Discretionary Grant Policy under section 31 of the Local Government Act 2003

Scrutiny consideration:

The Chair of the Strategy and Resources Committee and the Opposition Spokesperson were consulted prior to action being authorised.

Report:

Attached

Conflicts of interest:

None

Comments:

The Opposition Spokes councillor queried the proposal to close the application round for market and street traders and bed & breakfasts. The Strategic Director confirmed that officers had put a lot of time into assisting and encouraging applications from market and street traders and B&Bs some have chosen not to apply for various reasons. As the time is now limited, the Executive Councillor has made the decision to give other key sectors priority.

The decision will be reported to the Strategy and Resources Scrutiny Committee on 5 October 2020.