Thanet council has set up a new team to focus on processing Additional Restrictions Grants (ARGs) for businesses legally forced to close due to government restrictions but which do not pay business rates or for those that could remain open but were severely impacted by the national lockdown.
The team, which is made up of members of the council’s finance department, aim to ensure faster payments are made and to give more timely responses to queries and appeals.
The team, which has also been processing the Christmas Support Payment for wet-led pubs, has been working through outstanding applications and reviewing appeals. Last week it paid 160 ARG grants worth over £200,000 for the November lockdown.
The team has been combining ARGs for the periods of lockdown right up to the middle of February. These will be worth £3,378 for most of the 160 businesses or either £5,064 or £7,596 for larger businesses.
This week, the focus will be on making the January one-off top up grants to the same businesses.
Cllr Rob Yates, Cabinet Member for Finance, Administration and Community Wealth Building at Thanet District Council said: “In order to speed up the response times to businesses for ARGs we have set up a dedicated team to take control of the ARG grant process. This will result in faster payments and faster responses to queries and appeals for these grants. There will be two payment runs a week – on a Tuesday and Thursday.
“We know that some people are still waiting to hear back from us in regards to ARG applications and we apologise. We also know that some people have appealed the decisions and are waiting to hear back from us. We are now in a position to speed up our responses.
“This is an incredibly difficult time for businesses and we appreciate the stress that this may be causing. We will continue to do everything we can to ensure swift grant payments to businesses that meet the required criteria. Thank you for your patience and understanding.”
For more information and details of other business support available:
- visit COVID-19 business support pages
- email highstreets@thanet.gov.uk to sign-up for updates direct to your inbox
- request to join Thanet Business Support Facebook Group
- call the business support line (03333 602300), delivered by the Kent & Medway Growth Hub, between 8:30am and 5pm Monday – Friday.
Please be vigilant to a very convincing but fraudulent email purportedly from the NHS requesting personal details, but also asking the reader to accept or decline to have the Covid19 vaccine. It becomes apparent on the final page when it requested the readers bank details.
I will state again it looks to be a genuine email from the NHS. Please Beware
In other words Thanet Council have been really slow at paying out grants and are only now putting the right resources into getting the money out. Only they could then paint this as some sort of success story.
TDC are complete amateurs compared with HMG when it comes to spin.