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Nottingham City Council: Backing your business

"I recognise just how much local businesses rely on Nottingham City Council to ensure these vital grants are administered to businesses as quickly and as efficiently as possible.  Early in April, I wrote to the Chancellor, Rishi Sunak to urgently draw his attention to the gap in funding for small businesses that are affected by Coronavirus. I said that if this gap is not addressed, it will put at risk the viability of a significant number of small businesses, who make such an important contribution to the economy of our City. You can read my full letter here."

Councillor Sam Webster

Portfolio Holder for Finance, Growth and the City Centre

Business Rates Grants: £7m paid out so far...

A dedicated Nottingham City Council team continue to work as a matter of priority on the payment of grants to eligible businesses and we aim to get them processed and into bank accounts as soon as possible.

So far this week, over £7m of business support grants have been issued to local businesses with more to follow in the coming days.

If you are eligible, don't miss out:

• Apply here if you haven't done so already
• Complete your application as accurately as possible
• Email the Business Rates team if you have any issues or queries

For more information on Business Rates and links to the latest Government advice and support, visit Nottingham City Council's dedicated business support webpage.

Get ready to claim – Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

The online claim service for the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will be launched on GOV.UK on Monday 20‌‌ April 2020. Any entity with a UK payroll can apply, including businesses, charities, recruitment agencies and public authorities. To prepare to make your claim you will need:

• a Government Gateway (GG) ID and password – if you don’t already have a GG account, you can apply for one online, or by going to GOV.UK and searching for 'HMRC services: sign in or register'
• be enrolled for PAYE online – if you aren’t registered yet, you can do so now, or by going to GOV.UK and searching for 'PAYE Online for employers'
• the following information for each furloughed employee you will be claiming for: Name, National Insurance number, Claim period and claim amount, PAYE/employee number (optional).
• if you have fewer than 100 furloughed staff – you will need to input information directly into the system for each employee. If you have 100 or more furloughed staff – you will need to upload a file with information for each employee; HMRC will accept the following file types: .xls .xlsx .csv .ods.

You should retain all records and calculations in respect of your claims.

You can find more information on the scheme and eligibility to claim on the Gov.UK website.

Entrepreneur returns to practice during NHS hour of need.

Midwives will assist around 150,000 births over the next three months, through the peak of the COVID-19 virus. Olivia Swift, Director of Lotus Maternity has therefore chosen to help in the best way she is able during the pandemic and return to work as a midwife, after being asked by the Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) to join the temporary coronavirus emergency register. The Director of a multi award-winning maternity brand had her midwifery registration reinstated by the NMC last Friday, after opting in to return to clinical work to support the understaffed and overstretched hospital services.

Swift, who finished working as a midwife two and half years ago to work for Lotus Maternity full time says;

“Although it has been some time since I have worked clinically, I feel more staff working on the frontline is what is needed during the current crisis. It is an emotional and difficult time for all small business owners at the moment where many things are out of our control. Our factory in the city centre where we have our beautiful nursing wear range and nursery products made have had to close and whilst we carry a small amount of stock, we are unable to launch new products for our Spring/ Summer collection.

Thousands of women are pregnant and giving birth during this time, so we have had to also adapt the services we offer to them, for example, all of our postnatal support groups have moved online and we will endeavour to continue providing these vital services to women who often feel isolated with a newborn, let alone with all the stay at home measures.”

Swift facilitates many postnatal education courses within Nottinghamshire and encourages women to feed comfortably and confidently in public with Lotus Maternity and her unique, UK made nursing tops.

Staying true to the brand’s strapline of ‘Designed by midwives for mothers’ she will now continue to supply orders whilst stocks last, support her loyal customers and the mothers engaged in her services, whilst working these commitments around her new responsibilities of supporting women once again in childbirth.

Twitter: @lotusmaternity

How is COVID-19 affecting you?

Nottingham City Council are very concerned about the impact of COVID-19 on the local economy and, in particular, on businesses like yours. We need to understand as much as we can about any effect the pandemic is having on the business community so that we can refine, improve and extend the support we are able to offer businesses like yours.

With that in mind, can you please complete the questionnaire it should take around 10 minutes to complete. 

Take the survey here. (Closes 24/04/2020)

Call for PPE manufacturers

Social distancing measures and appropriate PPE are needed to allow Network Rail and supplier staff to continue working to maintain essential rail services during the Coronavirus Pandemic. It is becoming increasingly difficult to secure PPE such as Face Masks and, quite rightly, the NHS is being prioritised. Therefore Network Rail are urgently challenging the industry to propose innovative ways to increase the supply of face masks for situations where they are required by task specific risk assessments.

At this stage companies are being asked to express an interest in participating in this initiative with more information being provided to those who register. It is envisaged that the prime focus will be on:

1. Equivalents to the EN14683 type 1 surgical mask
2. Visors which could be worn with safety helmets
3. Equivalents to respirator type masks would also be welcome
4. Solutions which can be reused/ filters replaced would be particularly welcome

Visit the Rail Alliance webpage for more information.

Please provide an initial outline of what you think you could offer e.g. your manufacturing capability.

Special editions of the Growing Nottingham newsletter will be published regularly as new information becomes available, we hope you will find this useful and please, if you know someone who would benefit from receiving this newsletter, share it with them. They will also be able to sign up to receive the newsletter by visiting Nottingham City Council's Stay Connected portal.

And Finally...Email the Editor.

Do you have a positive story to tell about how your business is getting through the COVID-19 outbreak or how you are supporting your local community? I'd love to publish some of them here or on our twitter account. 

Thank you!

Andrew

Important message about your personal data:

In response to COVID-19, Nottingham City Council and partners Nottingham BID, MarketingNG and the D2N2 Growth Hub have shared data in order to get messages out to as many affected businesses as possible. If you do not wish to receive these updates, you can unsubscribe using the link in the footer below.