Published: Thursday 16th April 2020 | 4.00pm
Cannock Chase Council officers have been working hard to process the emergency grants received from government to help eligible businesses during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The first payments were made on 6 April and it expects the vast majority of these grants to have been paid by the end of the month.
As of 15 April, the Council had made grant payments to businesses in the District worth £9 million, representing 40% of the anticipated number of eligible payments.
In what has become a major task, the Council is currently dealing with around 1,600 applications from businesses who qualify for the government support. This has involved Revenue and Benefits officers working over the past two weekends to help manage and process applications.
The Council understands the importance of these grants to local businesses and it is a top priority to pay them as quickly as possible.
Payments being made have comprised grants of up to £25,000 for businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors with rateable values between £15,000 and £51,000; and grants of £10,000 for all businesses in receipt of Small Business Rate Relief.
In addition, the Council has been pursuing 100% Business Rate relief for all businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors for 2020/21.
The Council urges any eligible business that has not claimed to date to complete the online form on its website www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk ensuring all fields are completed and the supporting evidence attached. Failure to attach the necessary supporting information has been leading to an unnecessary delay in the payment of grants, with officers having to ring each business to obtain this information.
Larger businesses, with a turnover of no more than £45m and needing access to cash to help with immediate business costs, can apply to a separate government scheme being administered by the banking industry. This scheme offers loans of up to £5m, with no interest due in the first 12 months.
Councillor Tony Johnson, Portfolio Leader for Economic Development and Planning said: “This has been a mammoth task to support our business community, where our officers having been working as quickly as they can to support eligible businesses through this difficult period.
“We sincerely thank businesses for their understanding as we process all the applications received, some of which we have needed to chase up for incomplete or missing information we need in order to comply with the government’s scheme.
“The good news is that we anticipate making virtually all of the payments in time for businesses who run their monthly payroll at the end of April.”
Specific details on support for businesses in response to COVID-19 can be found at https://www.cannockchasedc.gov.uk/business/economic-development/support-businesses-affected-covid-19
Photograph:
Councillor Tony Johnson