Decision details

The following decision was made under delegation 10.1(c) of Section 5 of Part 3 of the Council’s Constitution.  That delegation gives the following authority to the Chief Executive:

“Exercise the Council's powers to prepare for and deal with any disaster or emergency affecting life or property in Ipswich.”

Local Authority Discretionary Grant Fund

The Council has been allocated £1.24m by the Government to spend on discretionary grants.  The proposed Ipswich Borough Council Discretionary Grants Scheme is set out in Appendix A.

The Scheme follows the published Government guidance, i.e. it focuses on the businesses recommended for support by Government. It should be noted that the funding for this has been provided by Government and must only be used for this purpose (i.e. Discretionary Grants to third parties).

To adopt the Ipswich Borough Council Discretionary Grants Scheme (attached as Appendix A) as the policy by which the Council will distribute the funding (£1.24m) allocated to the Council by the Government for this purpose.

Reason: To enable the application process to start and allow the Chief Executive to then make decisions to fund businesses to a value as set out within the policy, up to a maximum of £10,000 each.

Note: This decision is exempt from call-in to enable the Local Authority Discretionary Grant Fund scheme to be launched as soon as possible to enable direct support to reach businesses. The exemption decision also had regard to the level of consultation undertaken prior to the decision being made.