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New national lockdown
A new England wide lockdown has begun, this means you must stay at home unless for certain essential reasons
This means that you must only go to work, or provide voluntary or charitable services, if you cannot reasonably do so from home.
Where people cannot work from home, they should continue to travel to their workplace.
Where it is necessary for you to work in other people's homes - for
example, for nannies, cleaners or tradespeople - you can do so.
For more information and a full list of restrictions, please visit the North Lincolnshire Council website.
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Grant Schemes Update
Closed Business Grant:
- Businesses who have already applied for the tier scheme will automatically receive their payments without the need to reapply; these payments will be credited to your account when funding is released to North Lincolnshire Council.
- If you have not already applied for the November lockdown and/or tier payment scheme, you can make an application on the Invest In North Lincolnshire Website.
Discretionary Grant:
- Businesses who received a payment from November’s discretionary scheme will automatically receive one to cover January and February without the need to reapply.
- North Lincolnshire Council will be re-opening our discretionary scheme next week for a 2 week period for new applicants.
- To be eligible for the discretionary grant scheme you must be significantly impacted by national lockdown and not eligible to any alternative schemes.
- The following sectors are not eligible:
- Essential retail including takeaways
- Construction
- Automotive repairs sector
- Grants are a maximum of £2,100 per 28 day period.
Retail, Leisure and Hospitality Grant:
- North Lincolnshire Council will be issuing the one-off payment (up to £9,000) to those already applied by the end of January 2021
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Furlough Scheme extended
The furlough scheme has been extended by another month at its first introductory rate equal to 80% of wages for time not worked, up to £2,500 per month until 30 April 2021.
Employers will have to contribute NIs and pension.
For more information, please visit gov.uk
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Restrictions, and how they affect your business:
Which businesses must close?
- All non-essential retail, including, but not limited to clothing and electronics stores, vehicle showrooms, travel agents, betting shops, auction houses, tailors, car washes, tobacco and vape shops.
- Indoor and outdoor leisure facilities such as bowling alleys, leisure centres and gyms, sports facilities including swimming pools, golf courses and driving ranges, dance studios, stables and riding centres, soft play facilities, climbing walls and climbing centres, archery and shooting ranges, water and theme parks.
- Entertainment venues such as theatres, concert halls, cinemas, museums and galleries, casinos, adult gaming centres and arcades, bingo halls, bowling alleys, concert halls, zoos and other animal attractions, botanical gardens.
- Personal care facilities such as hair, beauty and nail salons, tattoo parlours, spas, massage parlours, body and skin piercing services, non-medical acupuncture, and tanning salons.
Food shops, supermarkets, garden centres and certain other retailers providing essential goods and services can remain open. Essential retail should follow Covid-secure guidelines to protect customers, visitors and workers.
Hospitality venues like restaurants, bars and pubs must close, but can still provide takeaway and delivery services. Alcohol cannot be provided via click and collect / takeaway but can be provided by delivery.
Hotels, hostels and other accommodation should only open for those who have to travel for work purposes and for a limited number of other exemptions which will be set out in law.
What if one of my employees is asked to Shield?
Any person who is deemed as Clinically Extremely Vulnerable will be asked once again to shield themselves at home.
They can still work from home if they can do their job in this way, but should not be travelling into a premises to work.
Funerals, Weddings, Civil Partnerships and Religious Services:
Funerals can be attended by a maximum of 30 people, and it is advised that only close friends and family attend. Linked ceremonial events such as stone settings and ash scatterings can also continue with up to six people in attendance.
Weddings and civil partnership ceremonies must only take place with up to six people and these should only take place unless for exceptional circumstances.
Anyone working is not included. Social distancing should be maintained between people who do not live together or share a support bubble.
Places of Worship may stay open, but you must not mix with others outside of your household / support bubble.
Travelling during the national lockdown:
You must not leave your home unless you have a reasonable excuse (for example, for work or education purposes). If you need to travel you should stay local and look to reduce the number of journeys you make overall.
The list of reasons you can leave your home and area include work, where you cannot reasonably work from home. For a full list of reasons, please visit gov.uk.
If you need to travel, walk or cycle where possible, and plan ahead and avoid busy times and routes on public transport.
Avoid car sharing with anyone from outside your household or your support bubble. See the guidance on car sharing.
Guidance for controlling a business outbreak
A recent outbreak in a local business has been brought under control thanks to the effective procedures they had in place along with joint working with public health officials.
The areas key to successfully controlling the outbreak were:
- Communication with employees - ensuring they are clear on the rules they need to follow at work
- Early identification of cases and contacting public health using this online form.
- Identifying close contacts of anyone testing positive and ensuring they do not attend work
- Sharing information with public health officials - for example shift patterns and bubbles to allow informed decision making
These factors enabled the business to minimise the disruption to their operations and bring the outbreak under control quickly.
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Notification of Covid-19 outbreaks
We must all work together to adapt to life with coronavirus and prevent local outbreaks.
Businesses in North Lincolnshire who identify either suspected or confirmed cases of Covid-19 at their premises should inform the North Lincolnshire Public Health team by using this online form.
This will enable us to rapidly provide any support you may need to control the spread of coronavirus in your setting.
Upon notification of a confirmed positive case, Public Health England must be informed on 0113 3860300 or 0114 3049843 (out of hours).
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North Lincolnshire Council has a skilled team of Business Advisors who are here to support your businesses throughout the current period and beyond. For any support or information, please contact the Economic Growth team on 01724 297330 or businessinfo@northlincs.gov.uk
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