Leading councillors shared their concerns about businesses falling through the cracks for new funding to survive the latest coronavirus lockdown.

Brighton and Hove City Council’s Green, Labour and Conservative group leaders spoke out as they discussed how to manage more than £13 million in government cash to support businesses hit by the second mational lockdown.

They agreed to set up an online portal from next week at a “virtual” meeting of the council’s Policy and Resources Urgency Sub-Committee this afternoon (Friday 13 November).

And they were told that council officials were in the process of contacting businesses who qualified for support when the first grants were paid out earlier this year.

The Argus:

Brighton and Hove has £7.3 million for Local Restrictions Support Grant (LRSG) payments for businesses that have had to shut but which were providing “in-person services to customers”.

A further £5.8 million in Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG) funding will help other firms affected by the lockdown but which do not qualify for the LRSG. These might include suppliers to the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors.

At this stage, the council has agreed to pay out half of the discretionary ARG money quickly and hold back half in case it was needed for future lockdowns as the government said that further funding was unlikely.

Labour councillor Nancy Platts, who led the council through the first lockdown, said that she was concerned that keeping hold of half the money for the future may threaten the future of some businesses.

She said that she was frustrated that the council did not have enough money to support all the businesses who applied for the previous discretionary grants.

In the first lockdown, the council received £83 million from the government and shared £68 million between more than 5,000 small businesses and gave £3.7 million in discretionary grants to 307 businesses.

The council had to hand back the remaining £11 million to the government, despite asking to use it to support the remaining 600 businesses which had applied for but did not receive financial support.

Councillor Platts said: “Everyone needs the money now to keep going. I understand the logic. We have this finite pot of money and we’ve got to make it last.

“I also remember, just like other councillors, I got so many emails from people saying they couldn’t access any funding and they were falling through the cracks.

“I’m worried we’re going to be sitting on the money and businesses are struggling and going under. In six months, they might not be there to apply.”

Council leader Phélim Mac Cafferty said that the grant allocations should be kept under review to ensure that the money went out to the right businesses – those hardest hit by the second lockdown.

He agreed to “keep the door open” but said that the council had to be prudent with the money to support businesses through these hard times.

Councillor Mac Cafferty said: “I would welcome if we are able to have cross-party lobbying of the relevant minister for the strongest support from the government.

“The reality is we have this pot of money at the moment, but I don’t think, even at the outset, that this will go far enough and it will help enough of the businesses.

“My big fear is it won’t prevent some businesses failing. That, to me, is really serious, especially in this second lockdown.”

The Green leader said that he feared that Christmas would be “gruelling” for many businesses in the city and he wanted everything back to normal, with Brighton and Hove returning to “tier one” restrictions as soon as possible to help them recover.

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Conservative leader Steve Bell said that his fellow Tory councillors were happy to do all that they could to support the council reach as many businesses as possible to ensure that they survived.

He said: “None of us wishes to be in this situation. Let’s hope this is the last one for us all.”

The breakdown of the money available is

£1,334 for businesses in properties with a rateable value of £15,000 or under

£2,000 for properties with a rateable value of between £15,000 and up to £51,000

£3,000 for properties with a rateable value of £51,000 or over

Council officials said that they would report back on the grants process at a future meeting.