Issue - meetings

Lockdown and Tier 3 – Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG)

Further to the paper presented on 5 November 2020 on the Local Restriction Grants (LRG) for Tier 2, Sector and Lockdown to support York businesses, this paper provides recommendations on how the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) discretionary fund, provided as part of the Government’s COVID-19 support, can be used.

Additional documents:

Annex A Guidance from Government ARG 4-11-20, item 38 PDF 369 KB

Decision:

Resolved:

(i) That the Chief Operating Officer be recommended to make an emergency decision to:

· Implement a discretionary grants scheme providing support to the businesses outlined and at the levels indicated in paragraphs 19 and 20 to run until March 2022.

· Instruct the Head of Economic Growth to develop more detailed proposals for a business support voucher scheme for consideration at a subsequent Executive Member Decision Session

· Allocate a preliminary budget of £200k to fund future reopening events

· Keep the allocations under review as the pandemic progresses, bring update reports back to Executive Member Decision Sessions should the budget need to be adapted.

(ii) That should any element of this scheme be changed by subsequent government, delegation for the decision under this scheme be given to the Chief Finance Officer (s151) in consultation with the Executive Member Finance and Performance/Executive Member Economy & Strategic Planning, with changes approved retrospectively in public at the next available Executive Member decision session.

Reason: To support to York businesses which are affected by the Lockdown and Tier 3 restrictions but not eligible for Local Restrictions Grant (Closed) funding.

Minutes:

The Executive Members considered a report providing recommendations on how the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) discretionary fund, provided as part of the Government’s COVID-19 support, could be used. This followed the report presented at the previous Decision Session on 5 November 2020 on the Local Restriction Grants (LRG) for Tier 2 Sector and Lockdown to support York businesses.

The Head of Economic Growth outlined the report detailing the businesses eligible for the grant and the support available for businesses in the supply chain. He also detailed the method by which the grants would be allocated and distributed.

The Executive Member for Economy and Strategic Planning thanked officers for preparing the report and for work undertaken to engage and support businesses. He noted that the council as well as other local authorities had been lobbying the government, and as a result, changes had been made. He noted the importance of working with partners such as York BID, Make it York and the Institute of Directors and acknowledged the comments made by those organisations. He noted that many businesses would be supported by the grant. The Executive Member for Finance and Performance welcomed the grant and it was: