This is available for businesses which are eligible for small business rating relief (SBRR), with the exclusion of private premises (such as stables, moorings, beach huts etc.), car parks and parking spaces. The payments should be made automatically, and government advice is that “if you are eligible, your local authority will be in touch with you to arrange payment.” Most clients will have received letters or emails early in April.

There is, however, a practical difficulty. Almost by definition the local authority will not have bank details for the ratepayer. Accordingly, each local authority has needed to set up its own software for information gathering. Most are starting the process with a simple eligibility checker, but others seem to have unilaterally decided that certain properties may not be occupied by a business, and blocked access to the payment process unless the ratepayer enters into email correspondence with the authority. Some on-farm solar PV arrays have certainly been caught by this glitch, but there could be other enterprises such as commercial liveries which are also affected.

 In some cases, problems have arisen since the blocking process which has also disabled the emails or letters which should have been sent out early in April. This means that unless a ratepayer proactively goes through the local authority website and argues their entitlement, they will not even know that they have an entitlement, or indeed may even believe that they are NOT eligible for the grant. This may well be wrong and is almost certainly not what government intended.

Most clients will already have received their guidance letter, been through the registration, and received their payments, but some may still be in blissful ignorance, or waiting for a letter which will not arrive. Where we know that a client may be eligible for this grant, a phone call to ensure that it has been paid may not come amiss.

The views expressed are the author’s and not ICAEW’s.