Additional Restrictions Grant Policy (ARG Policy)

The Government Department for Business, Energy & Industrial Strategy (BEIS) announced a third top up to the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG).

£174,240 will be made available to businesses to apply for between 8 February and 28 February. The total funding will be split between all eligible businesses, with payment to be made between 15 March and 31 March 2022.

The ARG pot will be directed at businesses affected most by Omicron & changes to restrictions over December 2021 which do not qualify for other support measures announced in December 2021.

Funding Allocation

The table below outlines the funding allocated to Councils across Devon for the whole ARG scheme since the start of the Pandemic.

For Torbay this third top up is £174,240. Once fully spent, this will mean we have provided £4.86m of grants to businesses.

Eligibility

According to BEIS, Local Authorities are encouraged to support businesses from all sectors that may have been severely impacted by restrictions, or by the Omicron variant, including those outside of the business rates system. These may include, but are not limited to: hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care, the travel and tourism sector, including group travel, travel agents and tour operators, coach operators, wedding industries, nightclubs, theatres, events industries, wholesalers, English language schools, breweries, freelance and mobile businesses (including caterers, events, hair, beauty and wedding related businesses), gyms, and other businesses that may have not received other grant funding.

Given the limited funding of £174,240 and likely high demand, the ARG scheme will be focused on businesses from the list above which do not qualify for the Omicron Hospitality Leisure Grant or the Covid-19 Additional Relief Fund. This allows the ARG to focus on those businesses which have missed out on the other support.

As part of the application, businesses will be required to demonstrate how the changes to the covid19 response in December, which were as a result of Omicron, affected their business.

BEIS Exclusions

Exclusions to Additional Restrictions Grant (para 31 – 33 of the Guidance) are as follows:

1. Businesses that have already received grant payments that equal the maximum permitted levels of subsidy will not be eligible to receive funding.
2. For the avoidance of doubt, businesses that are in administration, insolvent or where a striking-off notice has been made, are not eligible for funding under this scheme.
3. ARG funding should not be used as a wage support mechanism, for capital projects that do not provide direct business support, or to fund projects whereby Local Authorities are the recipients.

Torbay Approach

In determining the value of the grant, BEIS advice references taking into the level of fixed costs of the business, the number of employees the business has, whether it is unable to trade online and the consequent scale of coronavirus losses.

As a result, each individual business within Category A would qualify for a full ‘share’ of the overall funding. Businesses within Category B would qualify for a 50% ‘share’ of the overall funding.

Category A

• Ratepayer or non-ratepayer - Hospitality including Travel & Tourism - e.g. group travel, travel agents and tour operators, coach trip operators.
  [Businesses which would have qualified for Omicron Hospitality & Leisure Grant are excluded]
• Non -Ratepayer – Leisure – e.g. activity provider
• Non -Ratepayer – Accommodation – Non-rated B&B’s
• Ratepayer - Leisure - non-qualifier for OHLG Capped at RV £51k e.g. Swimming pool
  [ Businesses which would have qualified for Omicron Hospitality & Leisure Grant are excluded]
• Ratepayer - Personal Care - Capped at RV £51k e.g. Beauty & Hairdressers
• Ratepayer & Non-Ratepayer – Retailers located at Cultural and Tourism centres

Category B

• Non-Ratepayer including self-employed – Leisure [50% Award] [Must be main source of income]
• Self-employed - Taxi & Private Hire - supported by reduced licence fees [50% award] [Must be main source of income]
• Early Years, child minders & Nursery Providers [50 % award] [Must be main source of income]
• Freelance and mobile businesses e.g. caterers, events, hair, beauty and wedding related businesses [50% award] [Must be main source of income]

For self-employed or sole traders, as this scheme is not permitted to be “used as wage support” these business types must demonstrate the ongoing fixed costs which are the liability of the business (i.e. not for personal use) that the grant award would support. E.g. Business property rental, Vehicle lease.

Application window

To avoid businesses missing out due to the application being “first come, first served” the intention is to open this scheme for applications from Tuesday 8th February for 3 weeks, closing on 28 February.

Once the application scheme closes, the fund will be divided between eligible businesses based on the categories below. Payment is expected to be made no sooner than 15 March 2022 and by 31 March 2022 at the absolute latest. This time delay between the scheme closing and the final payments is to allow any queries with applicants to be resolved and to carry out the mandatory pre-payment fraud checks. Any applications with missing information or outstanding queries as at 4pm on 11 March 2022 will be considered withdrawn and therefore excluded from the funding allocations.

Worked examples

Example A

200 applications received, 150 qualify for Category A , 50 qualify for Category B The total pot would be split £149,348.57 to Category A , £24,891.43 to Category B.

This would result in grants paid to Category A of £995.66 and to Category B of £497.83

Example B

280 applications received, 180 qualify for Category A , 100 qualify for Category B The total pot would be split £136,361.74 to Category A , £37,878.26 to Category B.

This would result in grants paid to Category A of £757.57 and to Category B of £378.78.

Given the limited funding and expected significant demand, the exact values awarded may vary, and in fact, be lower than those in the examples above. 

Further discretion

Any discretionary award outside of this policy must be approved in writing by the Section 151 Officer in consultation with the Cabinet member for finance.

The Councils decision is final.