Coronavirus: Large support for Peterborough businesses and how the city is planning for return to ‘normal’

We know we are still some way from this and that the message remains that we must all stay at home to save lives and protect our NHS.

But we have to make sure that when life does return to ‘normal’ we can continue to provide the services that we have stopped temporarily or have been running differently.

I imagine every business across our city is thinking in the same way and I hope that the support being provided by the Government, including the grants being administered by the council, is supporting them to remain viable at this time and will support them to recover.

In the past month the Chancellor has announced a raft of support measures for businesses of every size and type.

The council is administering the small business grant scheme which provides a one-off grant of £10,000 to eligible businesses to help meet their ongoing business costs, and a £25,000 grant for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses. In addition, we’re implementing a business rates holiday for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses and nurseries for the 2020/21 tax year.

As of last Sunday, we have paid out more than £15 million to 1,243 small businesses and businesses in the retail, hospitality and leisure sectors. Further payments will continue to be made over the coming days with the majority of these to take place by the end of the month. Businesses which qualify for the grants do not need to do anything, the council will pay the money directly into their accounts.

We’ve also awarded 100 per cent business rate relief for 1,255 retail/hospitality/leisure businesses, totalling £36,255,343.42. We also have 31 nurseries eligible for relief of £337,656.

On Monday, the Government announced the launch of the Job Retention Scheme, which will see HMRC reimburse 80 per cent of furloughed workers’ wage costs, up to a cap of £2,500 per month, for employees that otherwise would have been laid off due to the crisis. For more information visit www.gov.uk.

The Cambridgeshire and Peterborough Combined Authority is offering capital grant funding of £2,000 to £150,000 to help businesses strengthen capacity, survive the emergency period and recover more quickly. Visit www.capitalgrantscheme.co.uk to see if your business will qualify. It’s also supporting businesses to determine what support is available and support helping them in accessing it by providing a business support triaging service.

There are lots more support schemes available – I have mentioned just a few. Lots of information is available on our website www.peterborough.gov.uk or through our partners at Opportunity Peterborough – www.opportunitypeterborough.co.uk. Businesses can also get help and support by emailing [email protected].

I was pleased to hear at the weekend that councils will be receiving additional money to cope with the pressure the pandemic is putting on services. Councils will share in a £1.6 billion pot of money, which is on top of the £1.6 billion already agreed.

I have written to both our MPs, Paul Bristow and Shailesh Vara, thanking them for their support in raising with Government the need for additional funding.

It will certainly help to support the decision we took on Friday to increase funding by 10 per cent to all our providers of adult social care. We took this decision because it was the right thing to do, even though we were concerned that the original allocation of funds from government wouldn’t cover it.

This extra funding will be used to make sure that we can provide vulnerable people with the additional support and care that they need and to protect our local economy so that it can recover. We also hope some will be available to cover the loss of income that we would have expected to make at this time, which is essential to support the services we provide, or to replace savings that we were already striving to make.

Whether what we receive will be enough is another matter, but it is certainly a big help for now.

Finally, I’d like to put on record my appreciation and admiration for Captain Tom Moore who has raised more than £27 million for the NHS by walking lengths of his garden. His spirit and determination put many people half his age to shame.

What I particularly like about Captain Tom is that he undertook his fundraising efforts looking smart, wearing a suit and medals.

I mocked my wife when she told me I needed to wear my shirt and tie at home to conduct my meetings, but I have to say she’s right. Being smartly dressed does put you in the right mindset, something Captain Tom can vouch for.