COVID-19 NEWS
Job Support Scheme Expanded To Firms Required To Close Due To Covid Restrictions Under the expansion, firms whose premises are legally required to shut for some period over winter as part of local or national restrictions will receive grants to pay the wages of staff who cannot work - protecting jobs and enabling businesses to reopen quickly once restrictions are lifted.
Key Points:
The government will support eligible businesses by paying two thirds of each employees’ salary (or 67%), up to a maximum of £2,100 a month.
Under the scheme, employers will not be required to contribute towards wages and only asked to cover NICS and pension contributions, a very small proportion of overall employment costs. It is estimated that around half of potential claims are likely not to incur employer NICs or auto-enrolment pension contributions and so face no employer contribution.
Businesses will only be eligible to claim the grant while they are subject to restrictions and employees must be off work for a minimum of seven consecutive days.
The scheme will begin on 1 November and will be available for six months, with a review point in January. In line with the rest of the JSS, payments to businesses will be made in arrears, via a HMRC claims service that will be available from early December. Employees of firms that have been legally closed in the period before 1 November are eligible for the CJRS.
These measures will sit alongside the original JSS - which is designed to support businesses that are facing low demand over the winter months - and the £1,000 Job Retention Bonus (JRB) which encourages employers to keep staff on payroll.
Further guidance on the scheme will be set out by HMRC in due course, SCC will share this once it is available.
The Scottish Government today outlined further details on business support it plans to support businesses through the new restrictions announced earlier this week. SCC is awaiting further information on how the UK Government’s announcement will affect SG’s planned support.
SCC Response To Expansion Of The Job Support Scheme Responding to the Chancellor Rishi Sunak’s announcement that the Job Support Scheme will be expanded to support businesses affected by local or national COVID-19 restrictions, Dr Liz Cameron, Chief Executive of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said:
“Today’s announcement by the Chancellor to extend employment support is good news and will provide relief for thousands of Scottish businesses who are being forced to close their doors throughout Scotland over the next two weeks, although this does not come into effect until 1st November 2020.
“The additional announcement from the UK Government to pay a grant of £3,000 to businesses in England who are impacted by local or national restrictions, we would expect the Scottish Government to be mirroring these grants for businesses in Scotland.
“While these short-term measures are welcomed, they are not sufficient enough to offset the impending loss of trade and jobs.
"We need governments to focus on enabling business to continue to freely function, and manage our way through this situation. This stop-start approach is damaging business, consumer confidence and investment.”
Q3 SCC QEI - Faltering Business Recovery Faces Winter Of Risk Scottish Chambers of Commerce, in assoication with the University of Strathclyde’s Fraser of Allander Institute, has today released the results of its latest Quarterly Economic Indicator survey for Q3 2020.
The key highlights included:
On business confidence:
On employment:
On sales and revenue:
On business concerns and cost pressures:
Tim Allan, President of the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, said:
“This latest survey shows how fragile some parts of the economy in Scotland remain during this crisis.
“It makes sense that there would be some improvement compared to the previous quarter when significant parts of the economy were in an almost unprecedented shut down. But this winter brings significant risks for business, including further lockdowns and a decline in government support.
“Now is not the time to cut lifeline support. We expect joblessness to continue to rise, hitting hard from the start of November.
"There’s an urgent need to bridge the skills gap between those who have lost their jobs to those employers that are still recruiting. Plans to develop and support training and retraining in areas such as digital and low carbon technologies will need to be implemented if we are going to build back better."
Commenting on the results, Professor Graeme Roy, Director at the University of Strathclyde’s Fraser of Allander Institute, said:
“This latest Scottish Chambers of Commerce QEI survey shows that we are far from being out of the woods just yet.
“The unprecedented government support – including bounce-back loans and the furlough scheme – has enabled many businesses to hang on over the summer. But as this support is wound down, many businesses will no longer be able to postpone the hardest of decisions.
“Aside from the impact of the restrictions themselves, the stop-start nature of our progress through this crisis is adding to the uncertainty and imposing its own additional cost on businesses.
"For some parts of our economy, where forward planning and advance bookings are key, this poses particularly serious challenges.
“There is an urgent need for government support.”
You can read the full report below, as well as the early media coverage for the QEI survey and SCC press coverage this week.
Update And Clarification On Hospitality Settings The changes announced by the First Minister on Wednesday have focussed on restricting hospitality settings, with obvious knock-on effects to food and drink suppliers.
There is still uncertainty for many businesses in the central belt about whether they have to close tonight for 16 days or can remain open with restrictions.
A summary of all the restrictions (including travel advice) is available via the link at the bottom. The restrictions are complex and distinguish between hospitality outlets in the central belt and those elsewhere.
As a brief summary, this is what takes effect at 6pm this evening (Friday) for hospitality:
For hospitality premises everywhere EXCEPT central belt areas:
For hospitality premises IN THE CENTRAL BELT area (defined as five health board areas: Ayrshire & Arran; Forth Valley; Greater Glasgow & Clyde; Lanarkshire; Lothian):
When is a café a restaurant?
Important change to advice for manufacturers
£3.5 Million To Help Deliver Climate-friendly Projects Fast-tracked funding to help local communities drive their green recovery from the COVID-19 pandemic has been announced by the Scottish Government.
The Community Climate Asset Fund will provide grants of up to £100,000 for projects supporting community climate action including those that boost energy efficiency in community buildings, and that enable the purchase of electric bikes and vehicles.
Smaller grants of up to £10,000 will support active travel and waste reduction projects, and enable community groups and schools to purchase tools and equipment for food growing projects.
Applications for the fund are open now, with projects to be completed by the end of March 2021.
The Community Climate Asset Fund will be administered by Keep Scotland Beautiful as part of the Climate Challenge Fund initiative.
UK Economic Growth Slows Despite Eat Out To Help Out The UK’s economic growth was slower than the expansion seen in June and July, growing by just 2.1% despite the launch of the Eat Out to Help Out scheme.
In June, the UK’s economy grew by 8.7% and 6.6% in July. August’s figure was below expectations and the economy is still 9.2% smaller than before the outbreak of COVID-19.
Running from Monday to Wednesday throughout August, Eat Out to Help Out offered 50% off food up to the value of £10. Discounts for more than 100 million meals were claimed through the programme.
Analysts have predicted that growth with slow even further over the next few months due to the introduction of new COVID-19 restrictions, the end of the furlough scheme and worries over a no-deal Brexit.
A Treasury spokesperson said: “We have been clear that we stand ready to do more as necessary. Some firms will be affected by coronavirus for longer than others, and we will continue to seek to support these firms appropriately.”
Latest Coronavirus Statistics The daily update outlining the key statistics related to Covid-19 cases so far...
OTHER NEWS
£20.51 Million For Cairn Gorm Mountain Cairn Gorm will benefit from more than £20 million to make it a year-round attraction, generating significant economic benefits for the local area and Scotland’s tourism sector.
Funded by the Scottish Government and Highlands and Islands Enterprise, more than £16 million of the investment will be used to support reinstatement of Scotland’s only funicular railway and bring it back into service during winter 2021-22.
The decision to reinstate the funicular was taken following a detailed options appraisal that also considered replacing it with alternative uplift infrastructure, or removing it entirely.
Initial work to strengthen the 2km structure, which has been out of action since 2018, is expected to start later this month. Once up and running, the funicular is expected to attract thousands of visitors a year, generating benefits for the wider economy in Badenoch and Strathspey, where the tourism and hospitality sectors have been hit hard by COVID-19.
A further £4.35 million has been approved for potential additional capital requirements including building improvements, electrification of snow cannons, existing tow infrastructure, paths and car parking.
Webinar: Employing Talent From Europe And Beyond What's changing in January 2021 and what should employers be doing to prepare?
Scottish Chambers of Commerce is working with Talent Scotland to raise awareness with Scottish-based SMEs on the imminent changes to the UK immigration system coming into effect from January 2021.
For Scottish employers faced with skills shortages in the domestic labour market, recruiting talent from overseas is often critical to the growth of the business.
With the imminent changes to the UK immigration system as a result of Brexit, the aim of this webinar is to inform companies about the changes to the immigration system and what they will need to do to prepare if they wish to access talent from EEA and further afield once the free movement of people ends.
This 60 minute webinar is aimed at Scottish based SMEs. The webinar will be hosted by Scottish Chambers, led by Talent Scotland and supported by their immigration specialists Brodies LLP, and will cover:
The webinar will be held on Wednesday 21 October 2020 at 10:00am – 11:00am BST.
If you wish to attend the webinar please share the company details and email address to Ros Wardley-Smith.
Support For Those Affected By Redundancy Partnership Action for Continuing Employment (PACE) is the Scottish Government’s initiative dedicated to responding to redundancy situations.
It’s a partnership of organisations, which includes the Scottish Chambers of Commerce, dedicated to providing free and impartial advice, guidance and support during redundancy.
PACE can help businesses by supporting employees through the redundancy process. PACE is available to all individuals affected by redundancy, no matter the size of the business.
PACE Advisers have extensive experience of dealing with redundancy situations and can:
Skills Development Scotland leads on the delivery of PACE on behalf of the Scottish Government and a number of partners.
RECAP: DAILY UPDATES
SCC SUPPORT HUB
The SCC Business Support Hub The Business Support Hub on the SCC website has been created to enable businesses to find useful information quickly.
The Hub is updated daily and includes information on business support, access to finance, contact numbers, public information and travel advice.
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