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

To ask the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, how much funding each local authority has been allocated as part of the discretionary grants fund; and how much each local authority has allocated to businesses.

On 1 May, my Rt. Hon. Friend the Secretary?of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy announced a further up to £617 million available to local authorities in England to support small businesses with ongoing fixed property-related costs that are not liable for business rates or rates reliefs, and are therefore out of scope of the Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund (RHLGF).

As set out in the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund (LADGF) guidance, a local authority’s funding allocation equates to 5% of the value of the hereditaments they have identified as in scope of the SBGF and RHLGF in their area. Full details of this can be found here: https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/coronavirus-grant-funding-local-authority-payments-to-small-and-medium-businesses.

Local authorities have started making payments under the new scheme and, as with the SBGF and RHLGF, we will expect them to report to government on their Discretionary Grants Fund payments on a weekly basis. We are not, however, able to share a full breakdown of the funding allocated and distributed by each local authority under the LADGF at this stage.