Summary:  Mr C and Mr D complained about a discretionary grant scheme, set up by the Government and administered by local authorities to support businesses impacted by COVID-19. They say the Council did not award either of their businesses enough money to help cope with the loss of income they suffered because of the pandemic.

Finding

The Ombudsman upheld the complaint and found fault causing injustice.

Recommendations

We recommend the Council:

• apologise to Mr C and Mr D accepting the findings of this investigation;
• pay each £500 in recognition of the distress caused by its raised expectations and uncertainty around its decision making; and
• ask its scrutiny committee to carry out a ‘lessons learned’ exercise to ensure that if the Council is asked again to distribute discretionary grants to small and micro-businesses impacted by COVID-19 it introduces a policy and procedure that is open, transparent, and consistent in application. That it also provides clear guidance to staff setting out what records they should keep to show how they have applied the policy to individual cases.

Ombudsman satisfied with Council response: 20 December 2021

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