Good Afternoon

Please find below a useful update and links from the council on all matters Covid.

However firstly the BID Marketing Group met last night and has the following outline plan for Christmas etc:

Christmas - we aim to have Christmas Lights on North, East and West Street this year; we will print, design and publish c20,000 Bedminster Gift Guides; a web support for the gift guide; relaunch our successful Shop Local campaign (to dovetail with Covid marketing ideas; install circa 20 Santa Postboxes in shops and run a letter writing and delivery (by Elf) service. Finally we are working closely with Bedminster Winter Lantern Parade to have 20 large lanterns in shop windows to create a temporary trail - do get in touch if you would like one.
WEAREBS3.CO>UK is the BID’s free Ecommerce website. We saw a major spike in sales through this portal during the last Covid spike and would urge anyone not selling online already to get in touch.
General Covid Ideas - we aim to support the hospitality sector and outdoor seating by working with the council to create additional seating outside. We encourage all hopsitality businesses to do this where possible and think about blankets for customers plus some low cost fairy lighting (for example) in shop windows to brighten and ‘warm’ the pavements. In Scandinavia they now eat and drink outside almost every month of the year and it something we are going to have to look very closely at this winter.
Halloween - we aim to offer decent prizes for the best 20 pumpkins carved locally and create a pumpkin trail in 20 shops for a few weeks in October. If you would like a pumpkin in your shop window do get in touch.

JENN HULS/SHUTTERSTOCK

The latest business news from Bristol City Council.

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New business announcements from the Chancellor

On Thursday 24 September 2020, the Chancellor Rishi Sunak announced a series of new schemes for businesses under his Winter Economy Plan.

Here's a summary of the updates and what they mean for you:

Job Support Scheme: Replacing furlough, the Job Support Scheme allows employees to work a minimum of 33% of their hours. The company pays the employee for this work, and then the government and the company will top up the rest of the pay to 77% of their usual pay.

The scheme will start from November and last for six months. Employers do NOT need to have used the furlough scheme to use the Job Support Scheme.

Pay as You Grow: Businesses who took out a Bounce Back Loan to help with finance during the Coronavirus pandemic can extend the loans as part of a new scheme called Pay as You Grow. Businesses can pay loans back across a 10 year period, which will reduce the monthly repayments by almost half.

Loan deadline extension: The deadline for businesses wanting to apply for Coronavirus loan schemes has been pushed back until 30 November 2020. This includes the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme, the Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme, the Bounce Back Loan Scheme and the Future Fund.

Temporary VAT cut: the temporary VAT cut - from 20% to 5% - for certain sectors like hospitality and tourism will remain until the end of March 2021.

Self Employed Income Support Scheme (SEISS) extended: Self-employed individuals who are eligible for the SEISS grant may be able to receive additional payments, as the scheme has been extended. Click here to check eligibility and apply

Click here to read more about the Winter Economy Plan on the Gov website.

WECA launches 'Workforce for the Future' programme

WECA has launched a major new skills programme to help businesses respond to the impact of COVID-19 on their employees, known as Workforce for the Future.

The free service will help SMEs upskill and retrain employees in various areas, and support them to bring in work placements and apprenticeships.

It will provide tailored, in-depth support to help businesses plan and adapt for the future by identifying current and future skills needs, implementing development plans to upskill or retrain employees, and supporting with new hires.

To find out more, click here

Ways2Work and the DWP is also calling on businesses who are able to offer placements to young people to register their interest here. These placements will be funded by the government.

Responses needed for Bristol City Council site permissions survey

Bristol City Council is improving its site permissions web pages, and needs previous users of the site to offer feedback in order to make the page as user friendly as possible.

The site permissions pages are the first port of call for anyone planning to host an event in the city using a park, open space, or street.

If you have used the site permissions web pages before, please fill out the survey by clicking here

Please note the deadline for feedback is Monday 5 October.

Quick updates

• Businesses displaying QR codes should note that whilst it isn't a legal requirement for every visitor to scan the QR code, it is a legal requirement to ask at least one member of every party to provide their name and contact details. This can be done manually using paper if the visitors don't have the NHS app. More info here

• Additionally, businesses that are obtaining customer contact details as part of contact tracing should be aware of data protection rules. Find out more here

• To mark Black History Month this October, Natwest is facilitating a series of events showcasing the achievements of Black British businesses, including: Adapting Your Networking Skills on Wednesday 7 October (12pm); An Audience with Dr Ava Eagle Brown, Dr Yvonne Thompson, Bernie Davies & Joel Blake OBE on Wednesday 14 October (10am); and Black Business Live 2020 on Thursday 22 October (8:45am).

• The next of startup platform Yena’s free-to-attend virtual Rebel Meetups is on Wednesday 7 October (5pm – 6pm), featuring an interview with the co-founder of successful local startup TrueStart Coffee; more here

• Bristol Media has rebranded and is now Bristol Creative Industries, to better reflect the breadth and depth of the city’s creative community.

• If you're a business leader with high growth plans, the Scaleup Institute wants to hear from you. Take the Institute’s ScaleUp Business Survey 2020 here so that it can gain greater insight into the challenges and opportunities you're facing.

• TravelWest is hosting an Active October challenge, encouraging people to stay active during autumn as well as using sustainable travel. To sign up and/or invite colleagues, click here

• The new name for the venue formerly known as Colston Hall has been revealed as Bristol Beacon. More here

• UWE’s Bristol Distinguished Address Series provides a unique opportunity to hear about challenges and decisions being made at the highest level of strategic leadership by high-profile business executives from across the country. This year’s autumn series, beginning Wednesday 14 October, will be online; more here