For any employees worried at this time the city has a number of support links including support fund. Cost of Living Support | City Of Wolverhampton Council
For Businesses, on 29 December 2022, the government updated information on the relief for energy bills for businesses and non domestic customers.
Energy Bill Relief Scheme: help for businesses and other non-domestic customers - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)
Similar to the scheme that was introduced for households, this offers a discount (pence per Kilowatt hour) that is automatically applied by the energy supplier to the bill, businesses do not need to apply for this discount. If a business has not received their discount to their bill they must contact their supplier.
If there are any businesses who are worried about paying their energy bill, the advice is to contact their supplier and arrange an energy payment plan. This may give more time or could offer a payment break or reduction in payments. For those businesses who have contacted their supplier but haven’t been offered a payment plan, they are can contact Citizens Advice helpline consumer helpline
For financial advice on debt there is a charity called Business Debtline Business Debtline. The charity provide free debt advice to small businesses including cost of living debts and high energy bills. A business can speak to one of their advisers over the phone or use their live web chat service.
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 A great opportunity to kick the year off with an insight into, and tips on, managing cashflow and effectively managing your business finances as well as some networking with business colleagues over refreshments and a breakfast bap.
Our first networking breakfast workshop of the year is on Thursday 19th January at the Technology Centre, Wolverhampton Science Park. Refreshments and breakfast baps will be available form 8.15am with the presentation on “Financial Management for Small Businesses” starting at 8.45am. We will finish no later than 10.00am.
This workshop is free to attend and is part funded by the AIM for GOLD ERDF Programme. For further information and to book a place, please Click Here
 Wolves at Work
Wolves at Work business services supports the council’s priority to ensure that local people access local jobs with the right skills and employability values to meet the needs of employers. The Wolves at Work team would welcome the opportunity to work with and support your recruitment and workforce development in Wolverhampton. We offer a free service to help meet your current and future recruitment needs, through a range of measures. For further information please contact us at recruitment@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Wolves Workbox
Promote your organisation’s vacancies for free on the jobs page of Wolvesworkbox.com, the City of Wolverhampton’s employment and skills website. With 2000 unique visitors a month and almost 13,000 local residents of all ages subscribed to receive weekly jobs and training notifications, this is a great way to increase your organisation’s reach – all for free! https://www.wolvesworkbox.com/careers-and-training/jobs.html
If you have any queries or have vacancies to go on the workbox site please use the Contact Us form or email workbox@wolverhampton.gov.uk
Let’s Talk Apprenticeships
City of Wolverhampton Council would like to invite you to Let’s Talk Apprenticeships online event to showcase the apprenticeship offer in the city. This will cover:
- Key features of apprenticeships – benefits to your business, how they work and funding available
- Services available from Wolves at Work
- Apprenticeship Levy transfer – funding available for employers
This will take place online using MS Teams, on Wednesday 8th February 2023, 11.00am until 11.45am. If you are interested in attending and would like to book a place please Click Here
Support and discounts to help small and medium-sized businesses find, buy and adopt digital technologies to improve productivity; and support to grow the business through mentoring and workshops.
The Help to Grow: Digital Scheme provides all businesses with free and impartial information and support to help them adopt new software. This includes:
- guidance and tools to help you understand which digital technology is best suited to your business
- a software comparison tool
- checklists to help you see whether you’re ready and how to integrate new software
- case studies about similar businesses who have adopted new software
You may be able to get the discount on the costs of buying approved software, but please note the scheme closes to new applications for discounts on 2nd February. For further details please Click Here
The Help to Grow: Management course provides:
- access to 12-weeks of learning designed to fit alongside work commitments
- develop a bespoke business growth plan to help your business reach its full potential
- get 1:1 support from a business mentor
- learn from peers and network with businesses just like yours
The programme is 90% funded by the government so you only pay £750 – for further details please Click Here
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 Are you looking for talented and reliable staff who simply get the job done with incredible accuracy and competency? Consider recruiting ex-personnel Armed Forces to join your business. Why? They have transferrable military skills such as leadership and project management, good communication and are task orientated people that will add value to your business.
Armed Forces personnel have honed their skills from a variety of sectors including engineering, cyber, communications, logistics, avionics, construction, medicine and many more. The first step to gain access to this talent pool is to sign up to the Armed Forces Covenant to gain free access to military job vacancy platforms.
For further information please see Businesses - Armed Forces Covenant or contact Gulsharan Anmol Gulsharan.Anmol3@wolverhampton.gov.uk
 Looking for space to work, spark your creativity and grow your business? Why not visit, IGNITE - a FREE to use business workspace located right in the heart of the city.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7Ht93IgekaM
Launched by the city council to inspire start-ups, SME’s and support people into employment & training, IGNITE is an amazing co-working space offering events and training opportunities, a space to collaborate as well as valuable business advice from our manager Jas, who is an experienced Business Support Advisor.
IGNITE also offers a range of fantastic facilities including, high speed 5G internet, 2 meeting rooms, AV equipment, kitchen facilities, secure lockers and 14 bookable desks all for FREE! Open 9am to 5pm Monday to Friday, become a member today for FREE and experience our fabulous workspace for yourself. Discover more and join today.
The Black Country Chamber of Commerce is working in partnership with City of Wolverhampton Council to engage with businesses like yours to understand attitudes and experiences of training for you and your staff. The survey also focuses on your awareness of iGNITE, the business workspace and start-up centre at the i10 office in Wolverhampton.
We would be extremely grateful if you could share your own views by completing this survey. It will only take a few minutes to complete depending on your answers and your own business circumstances. As a thank you for taking part, with your permission, you will be entered into a free prize draw to potentially win a £250 Amazon voucher.
https://emea.focusvision.com/survey/selfserve/174e/221000?list=2
This survey is being undertaken by Eureka Research, an independent market research agency based in the Midlands. All your responses will be kept strictly confidential, and no individuals will be identified as a result of completing this survey.
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 Can your business help our city’s young people? Could you offer advice and guidance on housing issues or financial matters?Could you offer new household goods such as soft furnishings, paint, kitchen/bathroom items or financial help with grocery shopping?
The Wolverhampton House Project is a partnership between the council, the National House Project, Wolverhampton Homes, and commercial partner Reconomy. It is designed to help care leavers through one of the most difficult periods in their lives and to give them the skills and confidence to build a life for themselves after leaving care. Moving to independence from 16 and living alone from 18 as a care leaver is daunting. Doing this without the support of close family and at a much earlier age than the general population (average age of leaving home is 24) does not work for many young people. Care leavers often describe the loneliness and fear they feel.
If you can help in any way, please contact Karen Cosnett at City of Wolverhampton Council.
Karen.cosnett2@wolverhampton.gov.uk
For more information about The Wolverhampton House Project please visit https://wolverhampton.thehouseproject.org/
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