Issue - meetings

Report HPR2022/002

On December 15 2021, the London Borough of Bromley was notified by the Government that it would receive funding of £5,315,301 for businesses from the COVID-19 Additional Relief Fund (CARF), along with initial guidance on the operation of the fund. The discretionary scheme needed to be designed and set up in early 2022, subject to further guidance and clarification on the scheme from the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities, including when the funding must be spent by.

The Government had also announced that the third top-up of ARG funding of £102 million would be allocated to Local Authorities in England from 30 December 2021. The funding would be allocated based on a per-business calculation and had to be spent by 31 March 2022. The allocation for Bromley was £640K.

Due to the tight timescales to spend both funds once allocation and guidance was received, the report requested approval for the delegation of decision making to a Chief Officer in consultation with the Portfolio Holder. Members expressed concern that the report had to be considered without the normal scrutiny process by a PDS Committee, but accepted that it should be considered as a matter of urgency due to the very tight timescales.

RESOLVED that

(1) Delegated authority be granted to the Director of Housing, Planning and Regeneration in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Renewal,  Recreation and Housing to determine the design of the CARF discretionary scheme for businesses.

(2) Delegated authority be granted to the Director of Housing, Planning and Regeneration in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Renewal,  Recreation and Housing to determine CARF criteria and application process as required, in line with the Department for Levelling Up, Housing and Communities (DLUHC) guidance, when further detail is received.

(3) Delegated authority be granted to the Director of Housing, Planning and Regeneration in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Renewal  Recreation and Housing to distribute and move funding between any approach designed to best respond to demand and to ensure the full £5,315,301 relief for CARF is applied.

(4) Delegated authority be granted to the Director of Housing, Planning and Regeneration in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Renewal, Recreation and Housing to distribute allocation for ARG top-up three by increasing amounts available to any of the previous funding programmes agreed by the Executive for ARG, moving funding between any of the existing programmes to ensure the full amount is spent by 31 March 2022.

(5) Delegated authority be granted to the Director of Housing, Planning and Regeneration in consultation with the Portfolio Holder for Renewal,  Recreation and Housing to make any decisions required owing to unforeseen changes in Government guidance or policy relating to either fund.