Grants Linked to Business Rates - Application Process Update

Whilst we remain confident in recent communications from the government around legislative changes, an anomaly seems to have emerged around Coronavirus support measures to be administrated by local authorities.

Despite advice that authorities would be contacting eligible businesses to confirm the claim mechanism for grants linked to business rates (which remains the case in government guidance), we’ve been made aware that proactivity on the part of the claimant may be required to action this.

Review of certain authority websites confirms this despite acknowledgement (in the case of West Oxfordshire District Council for example) that this contradicts the advice provided to date – in most cases an online form is required to be completed to get the ball rolling.

We therefore encourage all businesses who consider they may be eligible for grants in this respect to check the websites of their relevant rates-issuing authority to confirm the position as soon as possible.

As a reminder, a summary of the grants available is as follows:

- A grant of up to £10,000 available to businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure businesses operating from premises with a rateable value between £0 and £15,000.

- A grant of up to £25,000 available to businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure businesses operating from premises with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000.

- A grant of up to £10,000 available to businesses in receipt of small business rate relief.

We have not been made aware of the requirement to apply for the business rates holiday for 20/21 for eligible businesses – we are expecting revised invoices to be sent out by authorities imminently though and will update if and when we receive clarity on this.

For reference, the pages for the authorities local to us are:

West Oxon: https://www.westoxon.gov.uk/coronavirus-business

Vale of White Horse: http://www.whitehorsedc.gov.uk/business/business-rates#!

Oxford City: https://www.oxford.gov.uk/businessgrants

South Oxfordshire: http://www.southoxon.gov.uk/business/business-rates

Cherwell: https://www.cherwell.gov.uk/info/4/business/675/covid-19-guidance-for-businesses/3

(Note: Cherwell DC have not yet provided details or an online form, but we’d expect that shortly)

West Oxon District Council have suggested that grants could be released as early as 10 April. Whilst this should be clearly be taken with some caution and by no means relied upon, it does hopefully indicate the intention for their provision sooner rather than later.

We appreciate the confusion this will inevitably cause (we are no exception given the communications we have received and published to date!) and that the application process may require provision of information you may not be aware of or require from us – please do let us know if this is the case and we’ll do all we can to help.

PLEASE ALSO REMEMBER TO CANCEL DIRECT DEBITS FOR VAT PAYMENTS IF YOU HAVEN’T ALREADY!

If you have any questions regarding this or anything else please get in touch, and for regular updates, announcements and news please check our website (www.dsaprospect.co.uk) and make sure you’re following our LinkedIn page: https://www.linkedin.com/company/dsa-prospect-ltd