Business Grant payment arrangements: COVID-19

CIPFA and the Institute for Revenues Rating and Revaluation (IRRV) have published some useful guidance on the new business grant payment arrangements

• Business Support Grants Fund.  “[Poperties in receipt of rural rate relief or small business rates relief on 11th March, including those in receipt of tapered relief, will be eligible for a grant payment of £10,000”.  Properties “which are occupied for personal use” are excluded.
• Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Business Grants Fund.  The current proposal is that  “properties which would have qualified for retail discount on 11th March will be entitled to either, £10,000 where the RV is £15,000 or less or £25,000 where the RV is greater than £15,000 and less than £51,000”.  Importantly, for cashflow purposes, the government is not expecting councils to make any of these payments until it has received funding.  In the immediate term, the government is going to make an estimate of likely cost of these payments based on VOA and NNDR1 data.  The actual cost of the scheme will be determined later on (“data capture exercise”), and a “reconciliation exercise” will ensure that the grant matches the actual payments made by local authorities. 

Current guidelines can be found below:
https://www.irrv.net/documents/72/council_papers/2020/April/Joint-Message-from-CIPFA-and-the-IRRV.pdf

Full guidance is expected to be released this week.

Guidance on the expanded retail discount was published last week. The Business Rate Information Letter (BRIL) has now also been issued:
https://assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/874286/BRIL_4_2020_Coronavirus_Response_Guidance.pdf