Hello I’m Cllr Toby Morris. I am delighted to report that we have now paid out almost £9 million to over 700 local businesses through the Government's Coronavirus grant schemes. The grants have been paid by BACS and should be in businesses bank accounts in a matter of days. I would like to thank the Council's rates team who have worked flat out to achieve this.
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However, we estimate that there are still over 1,000 eligible businesses that need to let us have their details so we can pay their grant. The grants apply to either:
A business that receives Small Business Rate Relief or Rural Rate Relief, or
A retail, hospitality or leisure business in a commercial property with rateable value below £51,000
If your business fits either of these criteria and you haven't let us have your details, please complete and return the form from the link below.
Public Health England has issued new guidance on social distancing in the workplace, emphasising that apart from some non-essential shops and public venues, it is important for business to carry on if at all possible.
The preference is for people to work from home but not everyone can do that. Certain jobs require people to travel to, from and for their work – for instance to operate machinery, work in construction or manufacturing, or to deliver front line services. The guidance will help employers, businesses and their staff to stay safe.
The Prince’s Trust has partnered with NatWest Bank to deliver a £5 million Enterprise Relief Fund. It will offer grants to 18 to 30-year olds who are self-employed and/or running their own business. As well as the cash grants, the scheme will offer one-to-one support and guidance to anyone who needs it and who may be worried about their future.
InnovateUK has announced that grants of up to £50,000 will be available for businesses to develop new ways of working and to help build resilience in industries such as delivery services, food manufacturing, retail and transport, as well as support people at home in circumstances like those during the coronavirus outbreak.
The plan is to boost the UK’s resilience to the long-term impact of the coronavirus outbreak and similar situations in the future.
The BFI and The Film and TV Charity have announced a new industry-backed Covid-19 Film and TV Emergency Relief Fund to help support the creative community.
The new fund will provide emergency short-term relief to thousands of active workers and freelancers who have been directly affected by the closure of productions across the UK.
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.
Please forward this email to others to whom this might be useful and encourage them to sign up to further updates. Please note that you can access previous editions of this newsletter too.
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
Hello I’m Cllr Toby Morris. I am delighted to report that we have now paid out almost £9 million to over 700 local businesses through the Government's Coronavirus grant schemes. The grants have been paid by BACS and should be in businesses bank accounts in a matter of days. I would like to thank the Council's rates team who have worked flat out to achieve this.
