A round-up of all the support and advice available for Humber Businesses
Coronavirus Pandemic: Business Support
We understand the region's businesses are concerned about how they will conduct business during this difficult and uncertain period.
Please read on to find out what support the Government are offering businesses and what the Humber LEP are doing to support businesses in our region.
How the Humber LEP is supporting businesses:
Growth Hub Advisers available for telephone triage consultations
Grants available from today to support SMEs with the purchase of ICT equipment to enable homeworking, and procurement of contingency & crisis management advice and support
Online workshops will be held in the coming days and weeks on issues related to business resilience, cashflow management, and home working methods.
The Humber Local Enterprise Partnership (Humber LEP) has issued its initial support measures for the region’s businesses facing tough trading conditions in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic.
Through its Humber Business Growth Hub, the LEP will provide grants to enable businesses to facilitate working from home, while the Growth Hub’s business advisors will also be on hand to provide support through telephone consultations.
Businesses should contact the Humber Business Growth Hub via email at growth.hub@humberlep.org or visit the Growth Hub’s website or visit the Humber LEP’s Coronavirus Business Support page.
The Chancellor Rishi Sunak yesterday announced more support for business and workers – to protect against the economic emergency caused by the coronavirus.
This includes unlimited loans and guarantees to support firms and help them manage cashflows through this period. The Chancellor will make available an initial £330 billion of guarantees – equivalent to 15% of UK GDP.
At last week’s Budget, the Chancellor provided £30 billion of support to the economy to deal with the crisis by investing in public services, increasing support for vulnerable people and providing business with tax reliefs and loans.
He said he would take further action as the situation evolved and yesterday outlined further measures including:
To ensure that businesses have access to the funds they need, the Government are providing:
support for liquidity amongst large firms, with a major new scheme being launched by the Bank of England to help them bridge Coronavirus disruption to their cash flows through loans
increasing the amount businesses can borrow through the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme from £1.2 million to £5 million, and ensuring businesses can access the first 6 months of that finance interest free, as Government will cover the first 6 months of interest payments
including new legal powers in the Covid Bill enabling us to offer whatever further financial support they think necessary to businesses
Providing £20 billion of business rates support and grant funding to help the most-affected firms manage their cashflow through this period by:
giving all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England a 100% business rates holiday for the next 12 months
increasing grants to small businesses eligible for Small Business Rate Relief from £3,000 to £10,000
providing further £25,000 grants to retail, hospitality and leisure businesses operating from smaller premises, with a rateable value over £15,000 and below £51,000
Mortgage lenders have agreed they will support customers that are experiencing issues with their finances as a result of Covid-19, including through payment holidays of up to three months. This will give people the necessary time to recover and ensure they do not have to pay a penny towards their mortgage in the interim.
Confirmation that government advice to avoid pubs, clubs and theatres etc. is sufficient for businesses to claim on their insurance where they have appropriate business interruption cover for pandemics in place.
To support the food industry and help provide meals for people who need to self-isolate, the Government has relaxed planning regulations to allow pubs and restaurants to start providing takeaways without a planning application.
What measures you are urged to take to protect your health and the health of others:
Households where an occupant has symptoms of COVID-19 - a high temperature or a persistant cough - should undertake self-isolation for 14 days;
All citizens should begin practising “social distancing”, including where possible working at home and stopping unnecessary travel.
More vulnerable groups should avoid social contact for around 12 weeks.
