Question to the Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy:

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, whether local authorities have discretion to make grants to a business under the Small Business Grant Scheme if the business is not registered with the Valuation Office Agency; and if he will make a statement.

The Government has announced a package of support for businesses to help with their ongoing business costs in recognition of the disruption caused by Covid-19. This package of support includes the Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF). Businesses with a property that on the 11 March 2020 were eligible for Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) Scheme or those businesses which on 11 March 2020 were eligible for relief under the Rural Rate Relief Scheme, will be eligible for the SBGF.

The SBGF, alongside the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund, have helped supported many thousands of small businesses.

In order to ensure that Local Authorities can help these businesses, on 1 May 2020 the Business Secretary announced that a further up to £617 million is being made available to Local Authorities in England to allow them to provide discretionary grants. This additional Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund is aimed at small businesses with ongoing fixed property-related costs but not liable for business rates or rates reliefs. It is our intention that the following businesses should be considered as a priority for these funds:

• Businesses in a range of shared workspaces;
• Regular market traders who do not have their own business rates assessment;
• B&Bs which pay Council Tax instead of business rates; and
• Charity properties in receipt of charitable business rates relief which would otherwise have been eligible for Small Business Rates Relief or Rural Rate Relief.

Local authorities may choose to make payments to other businesses based on local economic need and subject to those businesses meeting the specific eligibility criteria.