Hello, I’m Cllr Mike Evemy, Cabinet Member for Finance. The latest league table showing councils' performance distributing the two coronavirus grant schemes was published this week and Cotswold District Council ranked 60th out of 314 councils, having successfully paid grants to over 77% of eligible businesses. Thanks to the team for their hard work getting these grants out.
However, we are still trying to trace some businesses that we believe might be eligible. The grants apply to either:
Businesses that receive Small Business Rate Relief or Rural Rate Relief, or
Retail, hospitality or leisure businesses in a commercial property with rateable value below £51,000
If your business fits one or both of these criteria and you haven't let us have your details, please complete and return the form using the link below.
Beware of scams!
We are aware of some very realistic looking scam emails with links asking businesses to authorisetheir bank details to receive the business grants.
The ONLY way to submit a grant application in the Cotswolds is to complete the form and email it to revenues@cotswold.gov.uk.
We do NOT ask businesses to provide their details in any other way. Any other request you see, however realistic, is not from us. If you have any doubt at all, please contact us at revenues@cotswold.gov.uk or on 01285 623034.
The government has announced a new 'Bounce Back' Loan scheme for small and medium-sized businesses to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000. The government will guarantee 100% of the loan and there won’t be any fees or interest to pay for the first 12 months.
It is hoped that the Bounce Back loans will plug the gap for those struggling to borrow through the CBILS scheme and it opens for applications on Monday 04 May.
COVID-19 has had a huge impact on many parts of the labour market. Jobcentre Plus has launched a new website for businesses offering a range of advice to help overcome challenges associated with the COVID-19 pandemic. Whether you need to expand rapidly or are worried about redundancies, you can find advice on next steps and the best ways to support your staff.
A new standard guide for 'responsible innovation' has been published by Innovate UK and the British Standards Institution. The document, snappily known as 'PAS 440:2020 Responsible Innovation Guide' provides guidance for companies that want to innovate responsibly and to demonstrate their responsible behaviour to investors, customers and other stakeholders.
The guide is free to download from the BSI website.
The government has launched a free online learning platform to boost workplace skills. The site, known as The Skills Toolkit, is designed to help people gain new skills while they are staying at home. The courses have been selected on the advice of experts and leading employers to make sure they meet the needs of business.
Several business groups are coming up trumps with help and advice for businesses. The ones below are good but do also check the trade association for your own sector.
Enterprise Nation - a vibrant community of small businesses and business advisers with a website packed full of resources
UK Hospitality - represents the broad hospitality sector – covering everything from bars, coffee shops, contract catering, hotels, nightclubs, visitor attractions and other leisure venues
The government's business support website sets out the full range of business support measures that have been made available to UK businesses and employees.
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Our council Coronavirus web pages have updates about business support, communities and leisure, bins and recycling, elections and council meetings, planning, building and council news.
We hope you found this newsletter useful. We would like them to be as relevant as possible so please let us know what you think and don’t forget to send us your news to press@cotswold.gov.uk
