Agenda and draft minutes

Items
No. Item

58.

Apologies for Absence

Minutes:

There were no apologies for absence.

59.

Declaration of Interests

A member with a disclosable pecuniary interest or a prejudicial interest in a matter who attends a meeting of the authority at which the matter is considered:

 

(i) must disclose the interest at the start of the meeting or when the interest becomes apparent, and

(ii) may not participate in any discussion or vote on the matter and must withdraw from the meeting room.

 

A member who discloses at a meeting a disclosable pecuniary interest which is not registered in the Register of Members’ Interests or the subject of a pending notification must notify the Monitoring Officer of the interest within 28 days of the disclosure.

 

Disclosable pecuniary interests, personal interests and prejudicial interests are defined at Paragraphs 5-7 and Appendix A of the Members’ Code of Conduct

 

 

Minutes:

There were no declarations of interest.

60.

COVID-19 Local Restrictions Grant (Open) and Additional Restrictions Grant Schemes pdf icon PDF 376 KB

Please be advised that the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny has further agreed that the call-in procedure shall not apply to this urgent decision. This is because the decision is urgent and any delay in implementation caused by the call-in procedure would seriously prejudice the Council's or the public's interests due to the fact that this is a National emergency and the Council must ensure that it is providing access to funding for local businesses to continue, the Chair of Overview and Scrutiny Committee has agreed that the decision is both reasonable in all circumstances, and that it should be treated as a matter of urgency. This is in accordance with Part 4, Section H, and Paragraph 18 (a) and (b) of the Council Constitution.

 

Minutes:

The Head of Economic Development introduced the report. It was noted that the government has announced a range of financial support packages in response to the ongoing economic impact of Covid-19 and the changes to the tiering system, announced in the Winter Plan published on 23 November 2020.

 

This included the Local Restrictions Support Grant (Closed), providing grant support to businesses required to close under Tier 3 restrictions. This scheme was amended to provide support to businesses required during the national lockdown and guidance was further amended as a result of the changes to tier restrictions, providing grant support for businesses now required to close as a result of Tier 2 restrictions.

 

The Local Restriction Support Grant (Sector) provides support for those businesses which have been required to remain closed since the first national lockdown.

 

Two further grant schemes, the Local Restrictions Grant (Open) and the Additional Restrictions Grant, allow for local authority discretions in their application with regards to eligibility and grant levels.

 

It was noted that the report provided details of the guidance issued to local authorities and made recommendations on the eligibility criteria and grant levels to be awarded under these two schemes. Given the complexities of the guidance, and timing of the issuing of related clarification questions, proposals for the scheme were not available in order to take a report to Cabinet on 8December 2020.

 

The Cabinet Member noted that, in paragraph 5.26, the report stated that no further funding would be provided in the event that the authority entered Very High (Tier 3) restrictions or in the event of a further national lockdown. The Head of Economic Development explained that the Additional Restrictions Grants Scheme funding had been given to the authority as a one off payment in November 2020 and that no further funding would be received as the borough was now in Tier 3.

 

The Cabinet Member noted that applicants would have to confirm State Aid requirements were being met and asked for clarification of these requirements. The Head of Economic Development explained that there were limits on the amount of public funding that businesses could receive. It was highlighted that this amount was normally €200,000 but this had been temporarily increased to €800,000 as a result of the Covid-19 pandemic. It was noted that businesses would be responsible for checking that they did not exceed the amount of permitted State Aid, although it was not anticipated that this would affect many businesses in Haringey. It was clarified that businesses were responsible for notifying the authority if they no longer met any relevant requirements and that there was a process for recovering any funds if necessary.

 

In relation to a query about capacity, the Head of Economic Development explained that, although the checking process for grant applications was largely manual, there were additional resources for processing applications and it was anticipated that there would be no capacity issues. It was added that this would be reviewed when the number of applications was  ...  view the full minutes text for item 60.