This has been a very busy week behind the scenes as we have had teams working on the Local Authority Discretionary Grant scheme and the opening of our town centres.
In terms of grants, we have had a high number of applications and these are being rigorously assessed. We expect to start making payments to successful applicants next week.
It has been great to see businesses in our towns re-opening. We have distributed several hundred packs with social distancing floor stickers, checklists and posters to help. If you are a retail business and have not received a pack, please contact us at enquiries@westoxon.gov.uk and we will get one to you.
We are monitoring how all the towns are working in terms of foot traffic and will implement any measures to enhance safety as needed. Measures to reduce the car traffic in Witney High Street and increase the space for pedestrians will come into effect at the end of this week. We are happy to receive any feedback via the form on our website below.
The Department for Business, Energy and Industrial Strategy (BEIS) is encouraging business owners and shop workers to take photos in front of their ‘open’ signs this week and post these on their social media channels as part of the #OpenForBusiness Campaign.
Take a photo outside your 'OPEN' sign or shop front
There have been key changes to the Job Retention Scheme. HMRC is running a series of webinars to explain how the scheme works, covering topics from ‘flexible furlough’ to working out the amount you can claim.
'Digital Boost' is a free service supported by the Government to help small businesses improve their digital skills. The service can help with online marketing, design and branding including e-commerce websites and other core areas such as remote working. Sign up for the free service on the Digital Boost website.
Digital Boost is also looking for expert volunteers to help deliver the service - further details on the website below.
Business Secretary Alok Sharma has chaired a series of economic recovery roundtables, bringing together businesses, business representative organisations, regulators and academics. Discussions focused on the measures necessary to support economic recovery.
BEIS has published the questions that each session considered and is open to written submissions from interested parties with their ideas and insights. Please follow the link below if you would like to contribute.
Buying local is the best way to support the local economy. Several local businesses stock a wide range of 'back to work' products including PPE, sanitising equipment and signage.
We are more than happy to add other local suppliers to the list - please let us know at business@westoxon.gov.uk.
Other helpful organisations
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
MD2MD - helps managing directors compare notes on business MD to MD. Now operating online with a free trial period for qualifying business leaders.
Summary of business support
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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The 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 business@westoxon.gov.uk
This has been a very busy week behind the scenes as we have had teams working on the Local Authority Discretionary Grant scheme and the opening of our town centres.
