Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, what steps he plans to take to ensure that unspent monies allocated to the coronavirus Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund are (a) re-distributed under that scheme or (b) returned to central Government.

On 1 May, government announced up to £617 million available in the form of the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund (LADGF) to support certain small businesses that are not liable for business rates or rates reliefs and are therefore out of scope of the Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHLGF). As set out in the Grant Funding Schemes guidance, a local authority’s funding allocation for the LADGF equates to 5 per cent of the value of the hereditaments they have identified as in scope of the SBGF and RHLGF in their area: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses

Local authorities have now closed their LADGF schemes and are in the process of making final payments to businesses. These must be complete by 30 September. The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy will contact local authorities shortly to arrange the return of any unspent funds.