Councils still not issuing Covid payments

Data from a Freedom of Information (FOI) request, sent to 309 UK councils by Gerald Eve, showed just 58% of the 219 respondents had made any payments from the funding, worth £1.5bn, to compensate hospitality, leisure and retail businesses impacted during the pandemic.

This comes as the deadline for relief payments, first announced in March 2021, fast approaches, with councils having less than two months to conclude distribution, with any surplus funds to be returned to the Government.

Gerald Eve business rates policy lead Jerry Schurder said: “This fund was supposed to help businesses negatively impacted by the pandemic, but which were denied other business rates support.

“The government claimed CARF was the fastest and fairest way of getting support to businesses that need it the most, but the past 17 months has shown this to be complete hyperbole. In fact, the opposite is true.

Ensuring allocation 

“Businesses shouldn’t have to wait well over a year to get the rates relief they so desperately need.”

Furthermore, the FOI request showed of the £667m allocated to councils from the £1.5bn package, just £351m had been collectively paid out, suggesting a maximum of £790m could be paid out, short-changing businesses by £700m.

According to Schurder, central Government was to blame for the delay.

Having not confirmed the sums each council would be permitted to distribute until 15 December 2021 before issuing general guidance for individual councils to devise a relief scheme, creating further delays as application processes were set up.

He added: “To help local authorities catch up, we would urge the Government to extend the 30 September deadline by six months to ensure the £700m still waiting to be allocated gets to those who need it.”

Councils yet to distribute any payments include Hackney, Sheffield, Dudley, Croydon, Guildford, Nottingham, and Cambridge.

Too little too late 

While St Albans, Rochdale, Camden, Mid Sussex, Wiltshire, and Tameside have granted a percentage of allocated funds.

Additionally, 30 councils, including Sandwell, Solihull, Bromley, and York, have paid CARF relief without requiring any application process.

Creating headaches for those who traded well through the pandemic, which have been left identifying where they have unknowingly received a reduction on their rates bill in order to return the sums allocated to them.

Schurder added: “Sadly, it’s a case of too little, too late for the hundreds of thousands of firms that were retrospectively denied their rights to appeal their rates bills but have yet to receive a penny from the local authorities.

“It’s a travesty £700m meant to support businesses through the pandemic will likely never actually reach them.”