Issue - meetings

Report of the Executive Director Place providing the Committee with an overview of the distribution of Covid related grants.

The Committee considered and noted the report of Executive Director Place providing the Committee with an overview of the distribution of COVID related grants.

Councillor Leggett, Cabinet Member for Green City and Place, Councillor Barnes-Andrews, Cabinet Member for Finance and Income Generation, Kate Martin, Executive Director - Place, Matthew Hill, Economic Development Operations Manager, Steve Harrison, Head of Financial Planning and Management and Andrew Armour, Revenues and Benefits Manager were in attendance and with the consent of the Chair, addressed the meeting.

The Committee discussed:

·  the City’s approach to distributing the Additional Restrictions Grant (ARG)

·  the process for managing the application for grants, including the steps taken to identify potential fraud

·  the complexity of the process given the challenging timescales and the number of different grant schemes supported by the Government;

·  the anxiety created by the time lag between the announcement of a Government grant scheme and the subsequent release of Government guidance for administration of the grants; and

·  the management of expectations through effective communications.

NOTE:  Councillor Renyard declared that he was a trustee of an organisation that had received financial support through the grants programme but, that he was not involved in the application for funding.