COVID-19 - business support

Government roadmap

On Monday 22 February the government announced its four-step plan to release England from lockdown. Click here to read the roadmap document 'COVID-19 response Spring 2021'

 

National lockdown: stay at home

Along with the rest of England people in the Winchester district must now stay at home except for a number of permitted reasons as the new lockdown begins.

Hospitality businesses such as pubs and restaurants and non-essential shops must stayed closed.   Under the new national lockdown rules indoor and outdoor sports facilities including gyms and tennis courts must now close.

Essential businesses and services can stay open to the public. These include:

• Supermarkets, food shops, pharmacies and garden centres
• Places of worship
• Petrol stations and MOT services
• Laundrettes
• Banks and post offices
• Doctors and dentists' surgeries and vets
• Car parks, public toilets and playgrounds

Read the full government guidance here.

A full list of which businesses must close – and what can stay open – can be found on the GOV.UK website

 

The government announced that restaurants, pubs and cafes will ger automatic freedoms to provide food takeaway services for another year. This was due to end of 23 March 2021 but will now be extended by another year. The measures help give these businesses the confidence they need to continue to serve customers and retain their staff. It will also help them adapt to longer-term changes they may wish to introduce, such as serving their customers from market stalls.

The announcement can be found here.

To ensure that businesses and venues are able to remain open the government is now mandating that certain businesses and venues ask one member of every party to provide their contact details through NHS Test and Trace. You must have a system in place to ensure that you can collect contact information for your customers and keep records of staff working patterns for a period of 21 days to assist NHS Test and Trace contain clusters or outbreaks.
 
Any designated business that is found not to be compliant with these regulations will be subject to financial penalties.
 
A list of sectors affected by these changes can be found here .

Click here for the government's  ‘COVID-19 Secure guidance’.

Some businesses are eligible for Business Rates Relief for one year from 1 April 2020.

You may be eligible for the 100% Relief on your Business Rates bill in either of the following circumstances:

• your business occupies a property in the retail sector
• your business occupies a property in the leisure or hospitality sectors.

For more information on this relief click here.

Further information on those who are eligible for these grants and the application process is available here.

The government has annouced new business grants for Retail, Hospitality and Leisure, click here for more information. 

Click here for more information.

Click here for more information.

The government announced a "pay as you grow" scheme for businesses which took government guaranteed loans during the crisis. Loans can now be extended from six to ten years nearly halving the average monthly repayment. Businesses can also move to interest only payments or suspend payments if they are "in real trouble" for up to six months, without affecting thier credit rating.

Coronavirus Business Interruption Loans will also be extended for up to 10 years. The government also annouced that there will also be a new loan scheme in January.

The Kickstart scheme is grant funding for employers to create new jobs for any 16 to 24-year-old at risk of long-term unemployment, with government paying their wages, plus overheads, for the first six months. The first kickstarters will be in their new jobs this November, and there will be no cap on the number of places available. Hampshire Chamber of Commerce will be taking on the role of intermediary in the scheme. Contact them here to receive help with this process. For more information on the Kickstart scheme click here.

The government annouced a cut in VAT to 5% for the hospitality and tourism sector will be extended until 31 March. Companies that deferred their VAT bill will no longer have to pay a lump sum in March, they will have the option of splitting it into smaller interest free payments over the course of 11 months.

 

This scheme will help small to medium-sized businesses to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000.

Click here for more information.

The government has announced that a £1.25 billion support package for UK businesses driving innovation and development will be helped through the Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak.

This fund is targeted and tailored help would ensure firms in some of the most dynamic sectors of the UK economy – ranging from tech to life sciences – are protected through the crisis so they can continue to develop innovative new products and help power UK growth.

This package includes a new £500 million loan scheme for high-growth firms, called the Future Fund, and £750 million of targeted support for small and medium sized businesses focusing on research and development.

Click here for more information.

This scheme assists businesses affected by Coronavirus in accessing bank lending and overdraft facilities. For loans up to £5 million, the government is providing a guarantee of 80% for each loan. 

Find out more from the Government’s Business Support pages here.

Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme is available for larger businesses with £200m.

Find out more click here.

The new COVID-19 Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) will see the Bank of England buying short term debt from larger companies.

Find out more the Government’s Business Support pages here.

The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will be extended until April 2021 with employees receiving 80% of their current salary for hours not worked, up to a maximum of £2,500. The policy will be reviewed in January 2021  For further information about the Job Retention Scheme, click here.

The Government has brought forward legislation to allow small and medium sized businesses to reclaim Statutory Sick Pay (SSP) paid for staff sickness absence due to coronavirus.

Find out more the Government’s Business Support pages here.

If you are self-employed, your Income Tax payments due in July 2020 under the Self-Assessment system will be deferred to January 2021.

Find out more the Government’s Business Support pages here.

This scheme will allow you to claim a taxable grant worth 80% of your trading profits up to a maximum of £2,500.

There will be a third grant (covering November 2020 to January 2021).

For further information and click here.

All businesses and self-employed people in financial difficulty, and with outstanding tax liabilities, may be eligible to receive support with their tax affairs through HMRC’s Time To Pay service.

Find out more the Government’s Business Support pages here.

The Kickstarting Tourism and Restart and Recovery Grants have been created, specifically to help SMEs adapt and diversify following the impact of Covid-19. Funded by the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), eligible SMEs can access grants of between £1,000 and £3,000 (up to £5,000 in exceptional circumstances) for specialist advice. Applications are open now, funding is extremely limited and the scheme is expected to be popular, so expressions of interest should be made as soon as possible.

Click here to visit the Enterprise M3 website for more information.

Arts Council England are making £160 million of emergency funding available for those organisations and individuals who will need it during this crisis, and they have also changed the funding requirements for individuals and organisations currently in receipt of funding from the Arts Council to help alleviate pressure on them.

Click here to find out more information. .

For relief and grants being made available through Winchester City Council please refer to the relevant website pages here or contact 01962 848288 or email businessrates@winchester.gov.uk.

You can also call the council’s Economy team on 01962 814 915 for support and you can sign up to our business newsletter here.

There is information on Winchester City Council's Environmental Health and Licensing support go to:

EHealth@winchester.gov.uk
01962 848097

licensing@winchester.gov.uk
01962 848188

COVID-19 Guidance for Licensed Premises

Winchester City Council have comissioned IncuHive to proivde a business support sevice for businesses in the Winchester District. This is a free service that includes video based one to one mentoring, as well as free workshops and video tutorials.

Click here for more information https://incuhive.co.uk/helpme or you can contact IncuHive on 0800 689 3564 or by email at hello@incuhive.co.uk.

A new programme of support has been launched by Winchester City Council, specifically for business on our high streets and neighbourhood shopping areas across the district. The support is being offered as part of the Reopening High Streets Safely Fund, which was launched by the Government and the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) last year.

Businesses from Alresford, Bishop’s Waltham, Denmead, Whiteley, Wickham and across the city of Winchester can now access advice from a team of business and COVID-19 business specialists until the end of March 2021.

This new service is being run by Digital Islands, an experienced provider of business support services, and will be free to all participating businesses.

Business owners need to register with the support platform to access this help, which they can do 24-hours a day at any time. More details can be found here: https://highstreet.winchester.gov.uk/ and the website will be available until the end of 2021.

The service includes an extensive programme of business webinars, workshops and training specifically designed for high street businesses. Registered businesses can also book a one to one session with a specialist business recovery adviser or a COVID-19 safety specialist.

The service also features weekly live drop-in sessions until March including several sessions on digital marketing, accessed via the same web platform. These “ask the expert” sessions can cover any topic that businesses want information on. Businesses are encouraged to make suggestions of the topics they need to know more about, and Digital Islands will then run an event with someone who can answer questions on that subject.

Hampshire Chamber of Commerce will be creating a twice weekly newsletter to keep businesses up to date with COVID-19 developments, which can be found here.

For further advice or queries, you can contact Hampshire Chamber of Commerce at info@hampshirechamber.co.uk.

There is also further information on the Enterprise M3 Local Enterprise Partnership Growth Hub dedicated advice page here. For further advice or queries, you can also contact the Growth Hub advisors on 01483 478 098.

FSB will be running webinars to help businesses through the COVID-19 emergency, such as “Coronavirus: Financial help explained for SMEs and the self-employed.” Sign up to the webinars here.

For further advice or queries, you can contact FSB on 0808 20 20 888 or by email at customersevices@fsb.org.uk.

For information on how the Government is planning to support businesses affected by the Coronavirus please contact the national helpline on:

• https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus/business-support

• 0300 456 3565

• enquiries@businesssupporthelpline.org

For the latest information and advice, please visit :

• Guidance for businesses

• Employers and employees 

Or use the Government support finder tool to find out what support is available.

The Government has issued some advice on business continuity management (BCM). Download the BCM toolkit here.

We understand that due to Coronavirus, it may be a difficult time for licence holders to pay their Premises Licence annual fee. If you are experiencing financial difficulties and unable to pay your annual fee, please contact the licensing office prior to the fee due date; email: licensing@winchester.gov.uk or tel: 01962 848 188.