Small Business and Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grants Update

As of Thursday 23rd April 2020, more than £11.5 million in grant money has been given to businesses across the Malvern Hills District to support them through the coronavirus outbreak.

Grants of either £10,000 or £25,000 have been sent to more than 1100 eligible businesses across the District.

We are still urging eligible businesses affected by the pandemic, if they haven’t already, to register online here so grants can be paid quickly.

A range of business support measures have been made available to UK businesses and employees.  To see the latest updates on Government support, visit their dedicated Coronavirus Business Support Hub.

Visit the Malvern Hills website here to sign up for the latest updates for business during the Covid-19 pandemic.

Launch of new ‘Future Fund’ – available in May

The Future Fund will provide government loans to UK-based companies ranging from £125,000 to £5 million, subject to at least equal match funding from private investors.

These convertible loans may be a suitable option for businesses that rely on equity investment and are unable to access the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme. The scheme will be delivered in partnership with the British Business Bank. This scheme will launch in May 2020 and more details are available here

Coronavirus Job Retention scheme

The Government has published a step by step guide which explains what employers need to do to claim their employees’ wages. The step by step guide explains the information that employers need to provide to HMRC to make a claim through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme (CJRS). It also describes the processes involved. The Job Retention Scheme is now open for applications for funding. Apply for employees wages using this link

Furlough Calculator

HMRC have also put together a calculator to help you calculate employee’s wages, National Insurance Contributions and pension contributions if you’ve furloughed staff. This quick and easy tool will help businesses when trying to work out what their responsibilities are. You can access the calculator here

New Job matching service launched for Worcestershire

Worcestershire Jobs Match is a new service to support businesses and individuals across Worcestershire. Individuals can sign up to the free service and be paired with local employers who are looking to fill urgent short or long-term roles. The service also directs individuals to avenues of further training to help them secure employment. For more information click here

A £50m Heritage Emergency Fund has been set up to support the UK heritage sector in response to the Coronavirus crisis

The money will provide short-term funding for organisations delivering heritage projects or running previously funded projects and safeguarding heritage sites where funds have previously been invested to ensure they are not lost to the public.

See details of the Heritage Emergency Fund

Home Delivery and Collection services

Our Tourist information team have pulled together details of local businesses offering home delivery and collection services at the present time. Details can be viewed here. If you are offering collection or delivery services, but are not on the list, please do get in touch. info@visitthemalverns.org 

A Worcestershire couple have also recently launched a new website to help support local businesses offering delivery services during the corona virus www.deliverall.uk

Visit The Malverns Website

We will be redeveloping the Visit The Malverns website ready to go live in January 2021. If you are already on the website, please ensure your information is up-to-date. Please contact info@visitthemalverns.org to update your information.

If you're not on the the Visit The Malverns website www.visitthemalverns.org, please email info@visitthemalverns.org.  Once we're able to start promoting the area again, we will direct potential visitors to this website - please make sure you're on it! Your FREE searchable website page, includes a description, contact details, website link, images, facilities and more! 

How has your business has been affected by Covid 19?

The Coronavirus outbreak presents a significant challenge to businesses around the globe and across Worcestershire. Worcestershire Business Central, the local business support Growth Hub, is on hand to support your business through these challenging times and is also feeding back on business issues to government. Please take a moment to complete a brief survey on how you have been affected and the team will make every effort to help where it can. Click here to complete the survey

FSB providing advice and free webinars

As the fightback against Coronavirus continues, the Federation of Small Businesses is on hand to provide the latest information and guidance on what support and options are available to help get you and your firm through this crisis.

To view the range of webinars on offer click here

Next steps for 16 - 24 year olds

Do you know any 16 – 24 year olds that have not yet secured a place in education, training or apprenticeship for this September?  Worcestershire County Council, Worcestershire Local Enterprise Partnership and partners have set up a dedicated service where people can get impartial advice and information. Contact 0300 666 3666 or email careersworcs@worcestershire.gov.uk or visit the skills4worcestershire website.

Important new information series for Worcestershire businesses

“Making Connections” is a new series of podcasts and videos to support businesses in Worcestershire.

The initial episodes are specifically aimed at the coronavirus COVID-19 pandemic, covering what businesses can and should do from a variety of aspects such as HR, Insurance, financial and Leadership. These episodes will give advice relevant right now and share links to help organisations save time in getting the support they need.

With new episodes uploaded each week, businesses will be able to join the Worcestershire LEP and various partners as they discuss some of the important business issues, events and programmes happening within the county. The new series will be interactive with members of the business community encouraged to submit subject ideas and even appear in future episodes.

Find out more and stay updated on all the latest episodes by visiting the dedicated Making Connections webpage.

Chamber launches virtual business support platform

Herefordshire & Worcestershire Chamber of Commerce have launched a virtual business support platform. For more information visit their Coronavirus Support Hub for all the latest news, guidance and support available.

Virtual Tours - Video Content

We're investigating into hosting virtual tours, if you have good quality video content available to promote your business, please email your video files or links through to Victoria.Carman@MalvernHills.gov.uk.