Question to the Department for Levelling Up, Housing & Communities:

To ask the Secretary of State for Housing, Communities and Local Government, if he will change his Department's guidance to allow parish councils that have a precept to claim discretionary covid-19 grants for village halls.

On 7 August the Government published a clarification regarding the eligibility of town and parish councils for all three Covid-19 business support grant schemes. The conditions that town and parish councils must meet in order to qualify for each have been set out in the guidance for each of these schemes, which can be found on the Government website.

The precepting authority exclusion does not apply to the Small Business Grants Fund or the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund. Therefore town and parish councils would be eligible for the Local Authority Discretionary Grants Fund if they meet all of the scheme criteria.

However properties that are eligible for the Small Business Grants Fund should be awarded a grant through this scheme and would then be ineligible for a Local Authority Discretionary Grant. Local authorities will therefore need to ensure that the correct form of grant funding is provided. Local authorities should also note that town and parish councils are not eligible for the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Fund due to the precepting authority exclusion.