The Council is currently processing business grant applications as quickly as it can and has already made over 900 payments totalling £11.4m.

In order to ensure that payments are made to businesses that qualify under the conditions of the scheme, details of the applications received must be matched to the list of qualifying properties. This process can take time if the details do not readily match and this explains why some applicants have yet to receive their grant.

Council staff are working hard to work through the discrepancies and to release more grants on a daily basis.

Questions have also been raised regarding how the Council will deal with applications from owners of self-catering accommodation and why the process differs between England and Wales.

Economic Development is a devolved function and as such the business support scheme is drawn up by the Welsh Government and not the UK Government. This is to ensure that grants are only awarded to genuine businesses and not to property owners who have transferred their property across from Council Tax to Business Rates as a way of avoiding the additional premium on second homes.

As a result, the Welsh Government has included three additional criteria for self-catering accommodation, which are:

• The owner / company provides 2 year trading accounts
• That the property must have been let for at least 140 days in 2019/20
• That the income generated from the property amounts to more than 50% of the income for the owner / owning company

However, the decision to provide the grant ultimately lies at the discretion of the local authority and should be based on the overriding principle of the scheme of providing support to businesses negatively impacted.

In order to administer the scheme as set out by the Welsh Government but also to apply the overriding principle to support businesses that have been negatively impacted, the Council will administer the scheme in the following manner in relation to self-catering accommodation:

1. Any property which was on the Business Rates list prior to the introduction of the second homes premium on 1 April 2017 will not be requested to provide any additional information. It is accepted that prior to this date owners of the properties will have been running the accommodation as a business and as such their applications will be processed as per any other business. The Council commenced processing payments to these group of properties on 28 April 2020.
2. Any property that has transferred over to the Business Rates register after 1 April 2017 will be required to submit the additional evidence as set out in the Welsh Government scheme. The purpose of the check is to identify properties which are not genuine self catering accommodation businesses and have merely transferred across to the Business Rates register to avoid paying Council Tax.
3. We are aware that some genuine self catering businesses may not pass the 3 additional criteria and the Council may decide to still pay a grant in these cases if it determines that the business has been negatively impacted.

Staff of the Economic Development Team have begun contacting the businesses concerned; however, it is not always possible to identify applications in respect of properties that registered for business rates after 1 April 2017.

If you therefore do not receive any contact from the Council by 4 May 2020, please contact the Council on 01248 750057 (Option 1) to discuss your application.

The Council is aware of the financial situation of many businesses and is working hard to make as many grant payments as it can as quickly as it can. 

Ends 28.4.20