COVID-19 Business Assistance
Dear all,
These are unprecedented times for everyone and I am certain that you will now be in deep continuity and business resilience mode. We are currently awaiting central government guidance (which we expect to receive later today) to put in place the grant and business rates reliefs announced by the Exchequer earlier this week.
In the meantime, we are working with Plymouth City Council’s Economic Development department; creating a system that recognises both the overall potential economic shock here in Plymouth, but also the more detailed observations of individual businesses. This system will not only capture critical intelligence, but enable us to support businesses with more speed as soon as we do hear the guidance. It will help us provide as much help as possible when support begins to flow and ensure that the distinct needs of our businesses, key sectors and economy generally are lobbied for at the highest level.
At the bottom of this newsletter is the Business Assist Profile Form, which we would like you to complete for your businesses and return to invest@plymouth.gov.uk.
We will then convert this important data and feed it (anonymously) into our powerful lobbying to local and national government.
Each day there are a number of measures announced by government to support businesses impacted by COVID-19. As soon as we know what the next steps are we will announce them on the Invest Plymouth website and via our newsletter; as well as doing our best to directly contact those businesses that have contacted us for assistance and completed the Business Assist Profile Form. All information will be treated in the strictest confidence and only used for the purpose of this survey.
In the meantime, I would urge you to look at the Invest Plymouth COVID-19 Business Support support page. This has specific signposting, news and support featured and is updated with information as and when it is published. This also has links to two previous COVID-19 business newsletters. If you have already subscribed to Invest Plymouth you will receive these automatically; if you haven’t subscribed we highly recommend that you do, so that you can stay up to date with the latest support available. Please do also feel free to share this across your teams as appropriate.
Thank you for your help with this important piece of intelligence gathering. The more detailed information we have upon the impacts our businesses are feeling, the better can represent you.
If you have any queries please contact me or Patrick Knight at the email address below and we will make sure we get back to you as soon as possible.
Regards,
Steve Hughes
Chief Executive
Plymouth City Centre Company
E steve.hughes@plymouth.gov.uk
Patrick Knight
Economy, Partnerships and Regeneration Manager
Economic Development
Plymouth City Council
E patrick.knight@plymouth.gov.uk