Coronavirus - Support for businesses

Covid 19 Additional Relief Fund (CARF) for Business Rates

Please note that this fund has closed.

Covid 19 has presented a significant and unprecedented challenge for businesses and there is a relief fund for the 2021/2022 financial year aviliable to help you.

General eligibility 

Billing authorities will be responsible for designing the discretionary relief schemes that are to operate in their areas.

However, in developing and implementing their schemes local authorities must, if they are funding the relief from the section 31 grant,: 

  • not award relief to ratepayers who for the same period of the relief either are or would have been eligible for the Extended Retail Discount (covering Retail, Hospitality and Leisure), the Nursery Discount or the Airport and Ground Operations Support Scheme (AGOSS)
  • not award relief to a hereditament for a period when it is unoccupied (other than hereditaments which have become closed temporarily due to the government’s advice on Covid 19, which should be treated as occupied for the purposes of this relief), and 
  • direct their support towards ratepayers who have been adversely affected by the pandemic and have been unable to adequately adapt to that impact. 

In line with the legal restrictions in section 47(8A) of the Local Government Finance Act 1988, billing authorities may not grant the discount to themselves, certain precepting authorities (e.g. a parish or County Council) or a functional body, within the meaning of the Greater London Authority Act 1999. 

It will be for local authorities to determine the level of relief for individual hereditaments.

In your application for CARF you must indicate: 

  1. if you have not to date received any subsidy which fell within the Small Amounts of Financial Assistance or Covid 19 related allowances, confirm this in your application
  2. if you have received other such subsidies, then you should provide the name and total value of those subsidies 

You must not apply for CARF using this form if you have already exceeded the £2,243,000 allowance.

However, we will still consider applications for support under the CARF scheme if you have reached this limit provided you can evidence that you: 

  • intend to use the support to fund uncovered fixed costs (costs not covered by profits for insurance etc) during the period of Covid 19. Economic actors may claim for up to 90 percent of their uncovered costs (although this 70 percent limit does not apply to small businesses with less than 50 employees and less than £9 million turnover) 
  • have shown a decline in turnover of at least 30 percent within the April 2020 to March 2021 period, compared to the same 2019 to 2020 period

You may claim up to a further £10 million of additional allowance (on top of the £2,243,000) if you meet the above tests and you have not claimed any other support from the additional allowance up to an aggregate £10 million limit (such as from the Covid 19 business grants). 

Apply

Applications closed on 9 September 2022.