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As of the 1st April, the Restart Grants Scheme has been in operation. This Scheme is broken down into two strands and supports businesses in the non-essential retail, hospitality, leisure, personal care and accommodation sectors.
The grant amounts will be a one-off payment for each eligible property, based on the rateable value:
- a one-off grant of up to £6,000 in the non-essential retail sector
- a one-off grant of up to £18,000 in the hospitality, accommodation, leisure, personal care and gym sectors
How to claim
Due to the government increasing the information we need to collect from each business and the level of checks required to carry out before payment, you will have to apply for the grant even if we have already paid you one of the other business grants.
Before you apply
- Please make sure you have a copy of your business rates bill and that you upload a bank statement when making your application.
- You will also need to provide the date that your business was established.
- Please also provide the cumulative total of all business support grants your business has received.
We will aim to get grants issued to businesses at the earliest opportunity. The government has asked local authorities to carry out additional pre-payment checks on these applications, so please allow a minimum of three weeks before contacting us.
And finally - Please note that all previous grants are now closed for applications apart from the second round of payments for the Local Restriction Support Grant closed Addendum (payments made between 16th February - 31st March). Additional Restrictions Grant have been suspended until further notice.
A new government-backed loan scheme launched this week to provide additional finance to those businesses that need it.
Businesses – ranging from coffee shops and restaurants, to hairdressers and gyms – can access loans varying in size from £25,000, up to a maximum of £10 million. Invoice and asset finance is available from £1,000.
The Recovery Loan Scheme will ensure businesses continue to benefit from Government-guaranteed finance throughout 2021.
The scheme, which was announced at budget and runs until 31 December 2021, will be administered by the British Business Bank, with loans available through a diverse network of accredited commercial lenders.
26 lenders have already been accredited for day one of the scheme, with more to come shortly, and the government will provide an 80% guarantee for all loans. Interest rates have been capped at 14.99% and are expected to be much lower than that in the vast majority of cases, and Ministers are urging lenders to ensure they keep rates down to help protect jobs.
The Recovery Loan Scheme can be used as an additional loan on top of support received from the emergency schemes – such as the Bounce Back Loan Scheme and Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme – put into place last year
For more information, click here.
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From today onwards our wonderful EH Team will be out and about all week, including the weekends, to ensure all premises are reopening safely and giving out advice where needed.
Although we have known for a while the 12th April was the next big step in the roadmap, we appreciate the large amount of new regulations can be confusing and we are of course here to help and support so please do ask when you see us or get in contact beforehand environmental.health@allerdale.gov.uk
The team will be working in different geographical areas across Allerdale and will be focusing on beauticians, hair dressers, barbers, close-contact services and hospitality venues as a priority for the first couple of weeks after reopening. Some of these visits will be joint visits with the police.
The team will also be bringing with them a letter outlining the new procedures when it comes to visitors checking-in to your venue. This information has been outlined further down in the newsletter, so please do check it out if this affects your business.
On Wednesday, Allerdale Council as part of the Cumbria Better Business for All group, hosted a 'Reopening Safely Advice Clinic' which saw businesses across the county attend.
The webinar heard practical tips and updates on steps 2 & 3 of the roadmap, fire safety information from Cumbria Fire and Rescue and what Cumbria's business support networks can do for them now and beyond.
We have had really good feedback since hosting the webinar and we will certainly now look to do a regulatory/advice clinic annually.
If you are interested in hearing the meeting, please visit our YouTube page here.
We're pleased to say that our markets in Workington, Wigton and Keswick will resume this week in line with the Government’s roadmap.
The various safety measures that were in place at the markets prior to lockdown, such as hand-sanitiser stations and reduced stall numbers if applicable, will be in place when they return. At Keswick Market in particular the one-way system, revised layout and street marshals will also be in operation. These measures will be under regular review.
We look forward to welcoming back customers and traders and urge anyone attending one of our markets to adhere to the Covid-19 guidelines.
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On Friday, we sent out a specific newsletter outlining the new NHS QR code poster and visitor check-in information brought out to the public last Thursday. Our Environmental Health Team put a letter together to support this. We have outlined a brief version of that letter here:
To support outbreak management, you are required to comply with the Collection of Contact Details Regulations which means you must display an NHS QR code poster and request that customers and visitors check in to your premises. If individuals do not have the app, you must have a system in place to collect their name and contact details instead (advance bookings where contact details are provided can serve as the source of this information). Individuals should only be asked to check in with either the NHS QR code, or by providing their contact details, but not both. In addition, you must also ensure you have up to date staff contact details and records for when staff are on the premises.
Before reopening your venue, please ensure you understand your obligations to:
- Display an official NHS QR code poster
- Request that all customers and visitors scan the NHS QR code or provide their contact details
- Keep a record of all staff including shift times
- Provide an alternative method to collect contact details which doesn’t require ownership of a smartphone
- Keep information securely for 21 days before destroying it, and provide it to NHS Test & Trace if requested
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Hospitality venues only: Take reasonable steps to refuse entry to those who refuse to participate. This means you must to the best of your ability comply with the requirement to refuse entry and you should satisfy yourself that you have done all that could reasonably be expected.
Further guidance on the requirements can be found here.
The Information Commissioners Office (ICO) has produced guidance to ensure that you are GDPR compliant when collecting and storing contact details: please click here.
All supporting material and assets to use, can be found on our website. Please click here
Should you have any questions or queries please email environmental.health@allerdale.gov.uk and we will get back to you as quickly as possible.
Here is a message from Cumbria Tourism about some exciting opportunities for local business owners:
Cumbria Tourism currently has six Executive Board vacancies open to private sector businesses. Applications are open until the 27th May, with successful applicants expected to take up the role ahead of our AGM in June.
In order for our board to continue to represent the county's incredibly diverse visitor economy we're asking partners to help us spread the word by sending the below information to relevant businesses in your area.
Thank you in advance - if you require any further information please don't hesitate to contact Jonny Winter - jwinter@cumbriatourism.org
Applications are now open for a total of six vacancies on our Executive Board.
Each appointee will need to demonstrate passion and enthusiasm for improving all aspects of Cumbria’s visitor economy. Executive Board private sector areas of expertise listed below are for basic guidance only. Most importantly private sector Board members must reflect the diversity, geography and focus of the membership.
- A member representing a large operator
- A member representing a professional services or supplier
- A member with recognised expertise in finance
- A member with recognised expertise in public relations and communications
- A member with recognised expertise in digital marketing
- A member with recognised expertise in brand and strategic marketing
Each newly selected Non-Executive Director will hold office for a term of four years; they will then retire and be eligible for re-election for a maximum of 3 terms.
New Board members are expected to take up their roles ahead of Cumbria Tourism’s Annual General Meeting in June, as well as appearing in person.
Learn more and download an application form HERE.
Following on from the above, Cumbria Tourism have also asked us to share the below press release:
Cumbria Tourism will be flying the flag for Cumbria’s visitor economy at an influential ‘roundtable’ debate with the Governor of the Bank of England this Thursday 15 April – drawing on its latest first-hand research from tourism businesses as they start to reopen.
Cumbria Tourism’s Managing Director Gill Haigh has been invited to join the virtual event with Andrew Bailey to discuss how COVID-19 and Brexit are impacting the tourism industry, including the future outlook for businesses as restrictions continue to ease.
It coincides with the release of Cumbria Tourism’s new business performance survey, which has been compiled in the run-up to businesses re-opening at Step 2 (today, 12 April) and Step 3 (17 May) of the Government’s recovery ‘roadmap’.
Although there is increased optimism since Cumbria Tourism’s previous business survey four months ago, the latest results do reveal that half of tourism businesses in Cumbria are still concerned there are ongoing challenges around cash flow/increased costs, consumer confidence and cancellations. The survey has been carried out in association with Lamont Pridmore and the key findings include:
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The majority of Cumbria’s tourism businesses plan to reopen as soon as they are allowed to (85%). There was little variation by business type, although visitor attractions, restaurants, pubs and cafes were more likely to expect a time lag of 1-4 weeks before opening.
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Only 41% of businesses will be fully open when the time comes. 36% will have limited facilities, and 29% will limit numbers/have reduced capacity.
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Average capacity on opening across all business types will be 65%, with the most common response just 50%
- Businesses have highlighted the key challenges around reopening as:
- The extra workload to comply with requirements (cleaning and test and trace)
- Recruitment and training of staff
- Cash flow, along with the impact of social distancing and reduced capacity on the ability to make a profit.
- Booking confidence levels
- Costs associated with extra investment in outdoor spaces
- Venues with mixed facilities /shared spaces having to change the way they open and operate.
- Concerns about the affect poor weather could have.
- For the year to date, 63% of tourism businesses report their booking levels are down (and 40% significantly so).
- Businesses report a marked increase both in people booking for longer stays and in new visitors. A decrease in larger groups and international visitors is not unexpected.
- Overall, 32% of businesses describe the government support over the last 12 months as having had a slight positive impact, and 57% say it has had a significant positive impact.
Managing Director of Cumbria Tourism Gill Haigh says, “The Bank of England event builds on the high-profile lobbying work Cumbria Tourism has done over the past 12 months around the impact of not only the pandemic, but also the implications of Brexit and wider long-term issues facing our industry such as skills and recruitment.
“It is an important opportunity to ensure the voice of the tourism and hospitality sector is heard loud and clear, and there’s no doubt that up-to-date, real-time evidence about the day-to-day experiences and concerns of Cumbrian tourism businesses remains vital in helping us to lobby the Treasury and other government departments as they shape policy going forward."
Digital Tech Cumbria would like to remind everyone of there Masterclasses and webinars which are on offer. These webinars and masterclasses are provided alongside the one-to-one support. Please follow the links for more details - DTC Webinars & DTC Masterclasses
UK transition webinar support - HM Revenue & Customs (HMRC) is hosting several webinars to help businesses understand Customs Import Declarations, Exporting, Importing, and Trader responsibilities when using an intermediary. GOV.UK has also published a webinar recording from 24 February 2021, which gives an overview of the new trading rules with the EU.
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