This week the government announced further national measures to address rising cases of coronavirus in England. There has been changes to the rules around:
Working from home
To help contain the virus, office workers who can work effectively from home should do so over the winter. Where an employer, in consultation with their employee, judges an employee can carry out their normal duties from home they should do so. Public sector employees working in essential services, including education settings, should continue to go into work where necessary. Anyone else who cannot work from home should go to their place of work. The risk of transmission can be substantially reduced if COVID-19 secure guidelines are followed closely. Extra consideration should be given to those people at higher risk.
Businesses
- Businesses selling food or drink (including cafes, bars, pubs and restaurants), social clubs, casinos, bowling alleys, amusement arcades (and other indoor leisure centres or facilities), funfairs, theme parks, adventure parks and activities, and bingo halls, must be closed between 10pm and 5am. This will include takeaways but delivery services can continue after 10pm (from 24 September).
- In licensed premises, food and drink must be ordered from, and served at, a table.
- Customers must eat and drink at a table in any premises selling food and drink to consume indoors, on site (from 24 September).
- Businesses will need to display the official NHS QR code posters so that customers can ‘check-in’ at different premises using this option as an alternative to providing their contact details once the app is rolled out nationally (from 24 September).
- Businesses and organisations will face stricter rules to make their premises COVID Secure (from 28 September):
- A wider range of leisure and entertainment venues, services provided in community centres, and close contact services will be subject to the COVID-19 Secure requirements in law and fines of up to £10,000 for repeated breaches.
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From the 1st November and lasting for 6 months, the Job Support Scheme will open. It will protect viable jobs in businesses who are facing lower demand due to the pandemic. To be eligible employees must work a minimum of 33% of their hours. Employers will continue to pay the wages of staff for the hours they work, but for the hours not worked, the government and the employer will pay one third of their equivalent salary. All employers will be allowed to apply, even if they did not use the furlough scheme.
The Self Employment Income Support Scheme extension will support viable traders who are facing reduced demand over the winter months, covering 20% of average monthly trading profits via a government grant
Businesses who have borrowed under the Bounce Back Loan Scheme will be offered the choice of more time and greater flexibility for their repayments.
Lenders have been enabled to offer coronavirus business interruption loan schemes borrowers more time to make their repayments where needed. The application for all coronavirus loan schemes has extended to 30 November.
Businesses who deferred their VAT will no longer have to pay a lump sum at the end of March 2021 and can instead split it into smaller interest free payments over the course of 11 months.
The 15% VAT cut for the tourism and hospitality sectors has been extended to the end of March 2021.
From yesterday, Thursday 24 September, certain venues must by law display official NHS QR code posters.
QR codes should be displayed if:
- A venue provides hospitality services, including pubs, bars, restaurants and cafés.
- A venue provides tourism and leisure services, including hotels, museums, cinemas, zoos, etc.
- A venue provides close contact services, including hairdressers, barbershops and tailors.
- At facilities provided by Local Authorities, including town halls and civic centres for events, community centres, libraries and children’s centres.
- At places of worship, including use for events and other community activities.
Venues outside these categories but which have space for people to meet are encouraged to create a QR code poster.
For information to help businesses and venues please see here. To create a QR code for your business see here.
The International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC), Lincoln, is asking the public to help save it, and protect its future, by launching a national crowdfunding appeal in order to recover funds lost through COVID. These losses have cast doubt over the future viability of the charity and the centre.
If you are able, help IBCC today by donating, whatever you can, via the crowdfunding page.
People will be required by law to self-isolate from 28 September, supported by payment of £500 for those on lower incomes who cannot work from home and have lost income as a result. New fines for those breaching self-isolation rules will start at £1,000 – bringing this in line with the penalty for breaking quarantine after international travel - but could increase to up to £10,000 for repeat offences and for the most egregious breaches, including for those preventing others from self-isolating.
For example, this could include business owners who threaten self-isolating staff with redundancy if they do not come to work, sending a clear message that this will not be tolerated. Full details here.
On the 9th September Government announced that businesses in England that are required to shut because of local interventions will now be able to claim up to £1,500 per property every three weeks.
- Scheme provides a safety net to further protect jobs where a business is required to close
- Comes in addition to billions of pounds of existing loans, grants and tax breaks as well as the Chancellor’s Plan for Jobs
NKDC are in the process of planning how we will administer this scheme and what businesses can prepare prior to the application, in the event that North Kesteven enters a local lockdown. Once we have clarification on the information required from businesses we will share accordingly in our e-newsletter and website.
The government has introduced the Kickstart Scheme in Great Britain, a £2 billion fund to create hundreds of thousands of high quality 6-month work placements aimed at those aged 16 to 24 who are on Universal Credit and are deemed to be at risk of long term unemployment.
Funding available for each job will cover 100% of the relevant National Minimum Wage for 25 hours a week, plus the associated employer National Insurance contributions and employer minimum automatic enrolment contributions.
Find more guidance and promotional materials see here.
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