Summary: We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s failure to award him small business rates relief between 2021 and 2023. This is because the complaint is late and I have seen no good reasons to exercise my discretion to investigate it further. We will not investigate Mr X’s complaint about the Council’s refusal to award him a COVID-19 business grant as there is not enough evidence of fault by the Council. The grant scheme has been closed for several years and Mr X did not qualify for it at the time.

The complaint

1. The complainant, Mr X, complains the Council failed to award him small business rate relief (SBRR) from business rates or to pay him a COVID-19 business grant in 2021. The Council awarded Mr X SBRR in January 2023 and Mr X believes it should pay him the grant retrospectively.

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The Ombudsman’s role and powers

2. We investigate complaints about ‘maladministration’ and ‘service failure’, which we call ‘fault’. We must also consider whether any fault has had an adverse effect on the person making the complaint, which we call ‘injustice’. We provide a free service, but must use public money carefully. We do not start an investigation if we decide the tests set out in our Assessment Code are not met. (Local Government Act 1974, section 24A(6), as amended)
3. The Local Government Act 1974 sets out our powers but also imposes restrictions on what we can investigate.
4. 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)

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How I considered this complaint

5. I considered information provided by Mr X’s representative (Mr Y) and the Ombudsman’s Assessment Code.

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My assessment

6. There were several COVID-19 business grant schemes offered by the government and administered by local councils to help businesses affected by the COVID-19 pandemic between 2020 and 2022. Each ran for a set period or until all funds available under the scheme had been paid out. Payments were in some cases automatic, meaning that businesses which received SBRR did not have to apply for the scheme. But in other cases, including where a business did not already receive SBRR, they had to apply.
7. Mr X runs a business and has occupied premises under a lease agreement since 2018. Mr Y, acting on his behalf, wrote to the Council on 23 April 2021 disputing a demand for business rates as he believed Mr X was entitled to SBRR. He also asked the Council to pay Mr X the COVID-19 business grant.
8. Mr Y has provided evidence which suggests the Council failed to respond to his correspondence; he continued to send emails threatening court action or a complaint to the Ombudsman until the Council requested a copy of the lease agreement in June 2022. Mr X provided this in August 2022 and the Council updated the account in January 2023.
9. Mr Y believes the Council should have granted Mr X SBRR sooner but any complaint about this issue is late. Mr X and Mr Y were aware Mr X did not receive SBRR in April 2021 and of the period the award of SBRR covered in January 2023. However Mr Y did not complain to us until October 2024, more than 12 months later. I have seen no good reasons for the delay and I have therefore decided not to exercise my discretion to investigate the issue further.
10. Mr X and Mr Y were also aware that the Council had not awarded Mr X the COVID-19 business grant at the time and if they believed this was wrong they should have complained to us sooner. In any event, Mr X did not receive SBRR in April 2021 so he was not eligible for the grant; the Council also confirms he did not apply for it.
11. The Council’s award of SBRR in January 2023 did not retrospectively entitle Mr X to the grant as the scheme had already closed and any leftover funds had already been returned. We could not therefore say it was fault to refuse to pay Mr X the grant or recommend that it does so now.

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Final decision

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

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Investigator's decision on behalf of the Ombudsman