Liverpool-based The Women’s Organisation is calling on Chancellor Rishi Sunak to allow businesses in serviced offices who do not directly pay business rates to claim the grants. Tony McDonough reports

A large loophole in the Government’s emergency coronavirus support scheme means thousands of small businesses are missing out on grants of up to £25,000.

And now Liverpool-based business support body, The Women’s Organisation, is leading the call to ensure all businesses are given the support they need. In March, Chancellor Rishi Sunak said firms across the UK were facing an “economic emergency” due to the coronavirus crisis and the subsequent lockdown.

He announced a scheme whereby businesses with a rateable value of up to £51,000 could claim grants of either £10,000 or £25,000. However, the scheme excludes those businesses in serviced offices that do not pay business rates directly to local authorities and, instead, contribute to a shared business where a single rateable value is applied.

The one exception to this rule is the City of London Council which has made a commitment to include businesses which do not pay their rates directly to their local authority in the grant scheme. It has decided to plug that gap through the its own jurisdiction and is also ensuring that businesses there which have not yet successfully applied or qualified for Small Business Rate Relief (SBRR) will be accepted for the schemes, providing they fit the basic grants criteria.

Cash-strapped councils in the Liverpool city region would struggle to plug that gap without Government backing so now The Women’s Organisation, which offers support to entrepreneurs across Merseyside, is lobbying for the Chancellor to amend the scheme to include businesses currently excluded.

The social enterprise, which is also the lead agency for the city region Enterprise Hub programme, has sent its key concerns and recommendations to the Secretary of State for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy, with support from Riverside Labour MP Kim Johnson.

Maggie O’Carroll, chief executive of The Women’s Organisation, said: “By tying the eligibility of these grants to the Business Rate relief schemes, there are unintended consequences.

“These will result in legitimate small businesses that are contributing to the economy through the tax system not being supported through the scheme, as was originally envisaged by the Chancellor. This gap must be addressed as a matter of urgency, as successful and viable businesses are struggling to survive in the interim.”

Erika Rushton, a Merseyside-based creative economist, added: “The impact of this business rates failure is not just felt by individual businesses, but on whole ecosystems which have been instrumental in creating jobs and value which will also be critical to the economy’s recovery.”