Total joke: High street firms left in the dark as councils hold back on £1.5bn rates relief
Hundreds of thousands of businesses have been left waiting almost a year to receive support through a £1.5bn business rates relief fund.
The fund was to be distributed by local authorities to businesses impacted by the pandemic but outside of the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors.
Distribution has turned into a postcode lottery with business rates experts from Colliers also slamming government delays.
The Covid-19 additional relief fund (CARF) was announced last March after it was declared that material change of circumstance (MCC) rates appeals for pandemic-afflicted firms would not be valid for the appeals system.
Colliers has lambasted the government for taking nine months to pass necessary legislation and for allowing councils to distribute funds at their own discretion.
The current system poses particular difficulties for firms with multiple-sites as they have to process different schemes with different criteria and deadlines.
Just 19 per cent of local authorities have released their relief policies, with the government not publishing its distribution tables yet, Colliers said.
The government has “instigated a relief system that has been decimated not only by the size of fund to be distributed but also by the interpretation and resources of local authorities on how to distribute it,”John Webber, head of business rates at Colliers, said.
“We’ll be ending with 300 odd policies and whether businesses receive relief or not will be a total postcode lottery.”
Webber branded the situation a “total joke” and said many businesses had been neglected for support for two years now.
A government spokesperson said: “It is up to councils to allocate and target funding to businesses based on local circumstances.
“The government has provided an unprecedented package of support for businesses, including a total of £26bn in grants to those affected by restrictions put in place to tackle Covid-19.”