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A new report has cast doubt over the ‘value for money’ of the Government's covid-19 funding scheme for the events industry, saying some of the objectives may have been achieved without the financial support.
Jersey’s Visitor Attractions and Events Scheme (VAES) provided £1.2m of Government funds to help 18 businesses through the pandemic.
But despite the scheme meeting its objectives, a Government report concluded it was hard to evaluate what would have happened to these businesses without the support.
The report said: “It is difficult to precisely assess the value for money of the scheme and whether a similar result could have been achieved with less financial support.
“Some of the objectives may have been achieved without the VAES or the specific level of financial support, however, there would have been trade-offs and it’s likely that the VAES contributed to the achievement of its objectives.”
It added that the VAES provided a “relatively quick payout against a light touch initial assessment of qualifying costs”.
The government said it was ‘clear’ that the scheme had helped to sustain key visitor attractions throughout the pandemic and that those businesses were now able to continue this year.
The report states: “There are several planned large-scale events in 2022 such as Jersey International Air Display and Weekender. This suggests that economic infrastructure remains strong in organising large-scale events in Jersey.
“Anecdotal evidence suggests that there were no large number of business failures during the past two years and that visitor attractions in Jersey continue to operate such as La Mare Vineyards and Jersey Pearl.
Pictured: The scheme helped to retain key attractions and events that suffered from public health restrictions during the pandemic.>
However, the report highlighted that it was likely some of the funding was directed toward businesses that already had ‘strong financial resilience’ or would have survived without the economic support.
Government concluded that while it may have been possible to improve the targeting of the support, this would have slowed down the process and administration costs would have been higher.
The scheme provided financial support to businesses in events and visitor attractions sectors affected heavily by Covid-19 restrictions between October 2020 and April 2021.
Businesses were originally eligible for the first version of the scheme if they:
were events or attractions providers;
had suffered a detriment of 50% to their turnover as a result of public health restriction;
had a minimum turnover of £300k;
were registered for GST purposes;
had tried to borrow to support themselves; and
had completed a Jersey Business health check.
This scheme was heavily criticised by local businesses for being too narrow, so was superseded by a second version in March 2021, which was backdated to January 2021.
This version had slightly different eligibility criteria, including reducing the annual turnover threshold from £300k to £150k (although no business claimed in the £150k to £300k category) and Government removed the requirement of previously seeking funding support.
This scheme was also extended to March 2022.
Pictured: Businesses were eligible to receive up to 80% of fixed costs, up to a maximum of £250,000.
18 businesses received funding from the scheme between October 2020 and March 2022, totalling almost £1.2m:
Only two businesses applied to "not fit for purpose" support package
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