Many firms still falling through grants cracks - Colliers

Many companies are still falling through the cracks of the Government 's new grant scheme to aid those during the latest lockdown restrictions, according to experts at Colliers International.

John Webber (pictured), head of business rates at Colliers, has said that unlike the grants announced in the first national lockdown in March, office-based businesses are this time not included in the latest set of grants for businesses forced to close due to the latest nationwide lockdown measures.

The government has now issued full guidance to confirm the business support package for the January lockdown in England, which is geared at businesses that have been mandated to close since the start of January, such as non-essential retail, leisure, personal care, sports facilities and hospitality businesses.

Mr Webber said: “Whilst it is good to see the details of the scheme in England confirmed and we are pleased that the Government has decided to support those businesses that have had to close due to the lockdown, there are still many wrinkles. ”

Mr Webber outlined a number of issues within the new scheme, including:

• Unlike the first lockdown grant scheme, there is little support for office -based businesses. The government seems to assuming that office-based businesses can work from home/remotely- but many will still see a massive disruption to their business practices.
• Some businesses - such as those in serviced offices without their own rates bill in some areas did not receive any grants from the first grant scheme.
• The grant applications are difficult to fill in and many businesses are struggling to complete applications due to the amount of supporting information required.
• The Discretionary Grants are to some extent a post code lottery- with some boroughs processing grants at much greater speeds to others. Some local authorities are requesting differing levels of evidence to others - and different boroughs are deciding which businesses to prioritise.
• Although the UK has now left the EU and the EU state aid rules no longer apply, the UK remains bound by international commitments and the guidance advises that local authorities can still pay out subsidies (grants) under the State Aid Temporary Framework (up to �3m) until further guidance on subsidy control related to these schemes is issued.
• There is a shortage of administrative staff in many local billing authorities to process the grants. With shortages already prevalent as a result of Covid-19, the situation has been made worse by the government 's failure to pronounce on its business rates policy after the end of March, when the business rates holiday for the retail and leisure sector comes to an end.

Mr Webber again called for an extension to the business rates holiday, in order to avoid an economic and administrative headaches.

He said: “The failure to announce whether the struggling retail/hospitality/ leisure sector will see an extension of its business rates holiday after the end of March means that local billing authorities will need to be getting their systems ready now with a view to sending bills early March.

“However, the people who will be dealing with this are often the same people who are now struggling under the weight of distributing a new grant scheme.

“We urge the Government to say something quickly and extend the business rates holiday for this sector post March- or they will be giving out grants with one hand but taking it back for rates payments with the other- an economic as well as an administrative headache.

“The first national lockdown grant scheme which ended in August last year, still had over a £1billion left to distribute before the scheme closed.

“Let 's hope local authorities can be more efficient this time, but I am afraid the odds are stacked against them. ”