Restart Grants and ARG's- your experiences?

[Lucan Unlordly]

Being in rateable premises we've had the benefit of some of the funding distributed by our local council but have just been informed that we are not eligible for a Restart Grant.
The argument being that we are are in the supply chain for the leisure and events industry, as opposed to actually running a gym ourselves and are ineligible to claim that we are non essential retailers despite having an online shop and a showroom/counter for the sale of trophies, which we closed in light of government directives.

Note: Although gyms, sports clubs etc., can slowly re-open, our services and products will not be required for at least another 6 months.

We could however, be in line for an ARG - Additional Restrictions Grant - but our council has said there is no guarantee that government funds will be made available for such and that distribution will be discretionary.

I have read that some nearby councils have been awarding ARG's, possibly because of the way they have chosen to distribute the total sums they've received, and I'd welcome any feedback as to what's happening in your area?

 

[BusterBloodvessel]

Not sure if this will help or not as we are in a different industry - we have a bakers/pie shop. We were classed as essential, therefore allowed to open. All well and good - except the govt told all of our customers to stay at home! What particularly hit us is that we are in a small suburb surrounded by other shops, many of which are barbers/hairdressers/taning salons/nails etc - I counted 15 within less than 3 minutes walk of us! Not only do many of their staff get their lunch from us every day, but their customers do too - grabbing a sandwich before or after they get their haircut, some of them send out for coffees for their clients etc. They have all been closed for longer than most other businesses so you can imagine the impact on us. Our worst day was in January this year when we took £81 in a day!

Anyway - I digress slightly!

We applied for the ARG at the end of December. Initially was told we would hear within 14 days. After that I'd heard nothing so I emailed and was told "we are now aiming to process within 28 days but currently taking longer" - in other words, you;ll hear from us when you hear from us!

When we got to desperate times I messaged our local councillor on facebook. Luckily, we do have some favour with her as we have supplied free coffees and food for the local litter pickers in the past, during the free school meals saga last year we actually supplied over 500 sandwiches FOC for local children that she helped to distribute so we had a good rapport with her. And to her eternal credit, I messaged her on a sunday afternoon and got a reply that evening - "I've spoken to the council leader, he will be on it tomorrow morning". Before Monday lunchtime I got a phone call for someone dealing with ARG who was lovely and hugely apologetic but explained that they simply couldn't keep up with the number of enquiries they had but that she had "fished out" our details. Told me what extra info they needed and said to call her when we emailed it through and again she would hunt for it in the many emails they were getting.

We had to provide proof that we supplied to the hospitality industry (I sent copies of our previous wholesale invoices to pubs & restaurants, which of course showed the level of business we had) plus I had to prove that we had been negatively impacted by the pandemic. I sent an explanation like the above of our clientele and why they were no longer coming in, and luckily we keep weekly takings sheets so I was able to send examples of last january vs this january to highlight the difference.

It took a few days but we were quickly awarded £5300 in an ARG and it was in our bank 7 days later.

The support is there, I'd suggest getting as much background evidence and paperwork as you possibly can and not letting up - as I say in our case we had to involve our local councillor but absolutely every credit, she came good for us and rescued us from the brink of throwing the towel in.

 

[Lucan Unlordly]

Thankyou.

We had been receiving Tiered Lockdown payments which covered the rent and did secure a discretionary payment that was processed after we questioned the criteria earlier this year. The second discretionary payment was not forthcoming as the goalposts had been adjusted to be more specific, effectively putting us on the outside as being in the supply chain was no longer relevant.
It is this change that has impacted on us again.

Can I ask, when you received your latest ARG?