Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with reference to the Answer of 23 April 2021 to Question 181214, in circumstances where the Valuation Office Agency failed to add a business to the Local Rating List in advance of 11 March 2020, as the result of an admitted administrative error on the part of the Agency, whether local authorities should (a) treat affected business applicants as if such errors had been rectified at the time a Business Support Grant was due to be issued and (b) be compensated for the additional cost of those applications.

As the question does not specify which grant scheme it relates to, I am responding under the assumption that it refers to the Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF), and the Retail Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF) which were affected by the 11 March 2020 date.

Local Authorities were responsible for delivering grants to eligible businesses through these schemes, and they closed for applications on 28 August 2020. As stated in the Grant Funding Schemes guidance, businesses that were in receipt of Small Business Rate Relief or Rural Rate Relief as of 11 March 2020 were in scope of the SBGF. Businesses in scope of the RHLGF were those that would have been in receipt of the Expanded Retail Discount (which covers retail, hospitality and leisure) on 11 March 2020, with properties that have a rateable value of under £51,000.

The guidance is clear that Local Authorities were not required to adjust, pay or recover grants where the ratings list is subsequently amended retrospectively to 11 March 2020. However, Local Authorities had the discretion to depart from this if they knew that the record was incorrect - for example where it was factually clear to the Local Authority that the rating list was inaccurate on 11 March; but they were not obliged to do so.

We asked Local Authorities to close the SBGF and RHLGF schemes by 28 August 2020 and to ensure that, where any payments were still in process, they were completed by 30 September 2020. The only exceptions were those relating to a VOA / Ombudsman query, in which case payments could be made until 30 October. The 30 October date was negotiated to allow VOA queries to be resolved, but any that were not paid out by then are outside the scope of the schemes.