Council success in awarding business Covid relief fund
News release issued:
Businesses in the Wyre Forest district received almost £39 million in grants throughout the pandemic.
The government grants were given out by Wyre Forest District Council, working with North Worcestershire Economic and Regeneration Team. In total they made 6,171 grant payments to businesses between April 2020 and March 2022.
The council also successfully quickly set up its business rates relief discretionary scheme. This was to administer the government’s COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund (CARF). CARF was to support businesses affected by the pandemic but that were ineligible for existing support linked to businesses rates. The government announced the fund in December 2021. Wyre Forest District Council had its scheme designed, approved and was awarding rates relief to eligible businesses by February 2022.
By March 2022 the majority of the funding allocated to Wyre Forest District Council had been awarded to businesses. So far the authority has awarded 94% of its share of the fund. The average amount for local authorities is 23%. 46% of councils have not made any awards at all. This makes Wyre Forest District council in the top 15% of authorities in the country for administering the CARF.
Councillor Mary Rayner, Wyre Forest District Council’s Cabinet Member for Finance and Capital Portfolio said:
“Our discretionary scheme was set up quickly, it was simple for businesses, they didn’t even have to apply and it meant that by March we had distributed the majority of the funding. This fast turnaround meant we were able to give businesses the support they needed as soon as possible. I am sure business owners would join me in thanking the teams who made this happen so quickly. They worked extremely hard and did it without extra resources.”