Agenda item

Any Other Business that the Chairman considers urgent

Meeting of Virtual Public Meeting (Accessible Remotely, Finance Committee, Tuesday, 19th May, 2020 1.45 pm (Item 7.)

Minutes:

The following item of urgent business was raised –

The Chamberlain confirmed that the Corporation has now provided £14.5 million of the original £14.7M Small Business Grants Fund (SBGF) allocation or 98.6%.

This represents 847 grant payments out of the original estimate of 900 or 94%. The Chamberlain’s Department is continuing to process all grant payments within 48 hours of receipt of bank details, the remaining 6% represented firms which had yet to respond with these details.

The Chamberlain informed Members that the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for Small Business, Consumers and Labour Markets and the Minister for London, Paul Scully MP had, via a conference call with local government finance representatives on 16^th May, thanked the Corporation for its efforts to distribute payments thus far.

Separately, the Chamberlain raised concerns about the outline plans for the new Discretionary Scheme, namely, the size of the Corporation’s potential fund compared to others, as well as the current type of business that was eligible for funding. An update would be provided at the next meeting of the Committee.