Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s decision to refuse his small business grant application. This is because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council refused his application for a small business grant. He believes he has missed out on a £10,000 grant he was entitled to.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. This complaint involves events that occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic. The Government introduced a range of new and frequently updated rules and guidance during this time. We can consider whether the council followed the relevant legislation, guidance and our published “Good Administrative Practice during the response to COVID-19”.
3. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’. In this statement, I have used the word ‘fault’ to refer to these. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse impact on the person making the complaint. I refer to this as ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We may decide not to start or continue with an investigation if we believe it is unlikely we would find fault.

(Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)

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How I considered this complaint

4. I reviewed Mr X’s complaint and the Council’s response. I shared my draft decision with Mr X and invited his comments.

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What I found

5. In March 2020, the Government created schemes for councils to pay grants to small businesses. This was because the COVID-19 restrictions affected so many of them.
6. A business’ right to a grant depends on its rateable value on the business rating list and its eligibility for certain business rate reliefs on 11 March 2020.
7. Mr X has occupied his current premises since July 2018 but had not registered for business rates on 11 March 2020; he did not therefore receive small business rate relief. When he found out about the Government’s small business grant scheme he contacted the Council explaining he should be liable for business rates and believed he was eligible for small business rate relief. He therefore believed the Council should award him a £10,000 grant.
8. The Council has now backdated Mr X’s liability for business rates to July 2018. It wrote to him on 30 April 2020 requesting further information about his grant application and asked him to provide this within 14 days. I have seen no evidence to show Mr X responded to this request and the Council maintains he did not. It says, and the evidence shows, Mr X contacted the Council again in October 2020 to discuss the matter further but by this point the grant scheme had closed. The Council confirmed Mr X owed more than £10,000 in backdated business rates with an empty property discount applied to the premises. It sent him an application form to apply for small business rates relief but confirmed it could not award him a small business grant.
9. Mr X disagrees with the Council’s decision but I have seen no evidence of fault in the way it was reached. He says he provided the information the Council wanted but has been unable to show me any evidence to support this assertion. I am therefore inclined to accept the Council’s statement that he did not.
10. The Council made clear in its email to Mr X that the information was necessary to show he occupied the premises and was trading from it on 11 March 2020 and that without it he would not be eligible for the grant. Mr X cannot show he provided the information to the Council prior to the end of the small business grant scheme and once the scheme ended the Council could no longer award a grant.

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Final decision

11. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because there is no evidence of fault by the Council.

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman