Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s COVID-19 grant scheme. This is because the complaint is late and there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council to warrant investigation.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains about the Council’s additional restrictions grant (ARG) scheme for businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. He says was discriminative as it failed to consider business needs on a case by case basis and excluded businesses within certain sectors including letting and construction. As a result the Council refused his applications for ARGs and his businesses received no government help, leading to financial difficulties.

Back to top

The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. The Ombudsman investigates complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’.
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate. We cannot investigate late complaints unless we decide there are good reasons. Late complaints are when someone takes more than 12 months to complain to us about something a council has done. (Local Government Act 1974, sections 26B and 34D, as amended)

Back to top

How I considered this complaint

4. I considered information provided by Mr X and the Council.
5. I considered the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

Back to top

My assessment

6. From March 2020 the government introduced several schemes to help businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. These included reductions to the amount of business rates payable and government grants for affected businesses in the sectors most affected by the virus and subsequent lockdowns.
7. The ARG scheme was a way for local authorities to decide their own priority for businesses requiring help to survive the pandemic. East Riding of Yorkshire Council decided to support businesses which were forced to close and those businesses in the essential retail sector, including the relevant supply chains, which were allowed to remain open but were severely impacted by COVID-19.
8. Mr X has a lettings business as well as a business in the construction industry. These businesses were allowed to remain open and did not qualify for the Council’s ARG scheme as they did not fall into the relevant sectors supported by it. Nevertheless, Mr X says he applied for grants and that the Council refused his applications.
9. There is no fault in the refusal of Mr X’s applications as his businesses did not qualify for the Council’s ARG scheme. Mr X is clearly unhappy with the fact the Council chose not to support the sectors relevant to his businesses but the Council was specifically empowered by the government to make this decision. It has explained it could not help all businesses and that it chose to support businesses in the relevant sectors because they were the worst hit by the COVID-19 pandemic.
10. It is not for us to question the Council’s judgement on this point and the complaint is late in any event. The Council’s ARG scheme ended on 31 March 2022 and Mr X did not complain to us about it until June 2023, almost 15 months later. The monies made available by the government for the scheme have long since been allocated and paid and we cannot now tell the Council to reopen the scheme or make further payments from it now.

Back to top

Final decision

11. We will not investigate this complaint. This is because the complaint is late and there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council.

Back to top

Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman