Part of 4. Questions to the Minister for Housing and Local Government – in the Senedd at 2:49 pm on 24 June 2020.
So, the community councils—I can confirm that those facing the most financial hardship through lost income are eligible to draw on the hardship fund. So, that's available to them.
But, like for principal councils, we expect community and town councils who are experiencing lost income to look, in the first instance, at what support they can draw on immediately: so, such things as the furlough scheme, job retention scheme, grant from Her Majesty's Revenue and Customs where appropriate, utilising reserves, applying to the principal council to bring forward precept instalments to ease cash flow and so on—so, that's exactly the same set of rules as we apply to the principal councils—and then to come to us with a set-out spreadsheet, if you like, of what the lost income is and what mitigating arrangements they've put in place, what they've been able to do, so that we can consider it as part of the claims system that we have for the hardship fund. So, they're treated exactly the same as the principal councils in that regard.