Councillor Tudor Evans Leader of Plymouth City Council, and portfolio holder for Economic Development, shares an update on the support that the Council has delivered to businesses this week, and the focus for the coming week.
Shop4Plymouth supporting the local retail industry
Today we’ve launched #Shop4Plymouth a new online portal to support and promote shopping locally and supporting Plymouth businesses through the current pandemic.
The current crisis affects us on both a global and local level, with restrictions on movement impacting the way that we live – and the way that we shop. Our local businesses have adapted rapidly to these challenges, providing online ordering, delivery services, collection options and more. But they need the support of the local community to continue trading.
We’ve developed Shop4Plymouth alongside Plymouth City Centre Company and Plymouth Waterfront Partnership to connect the public with local stores and support people to shop local with an easy to use online marketplace where they can find everything from essentials to homeware, gifts and art supplies.
Check it out at www.shop4plymouth.co.uk
The fight for fishing continues
This week the Government announced a £10million support package for fishing and agriculture businesses in England. This is a step in the right direction, but much more needs to be done to keep the fishing fleet, and its supply chain, above water.
We’re continuing to give particular focus to lobbying to support the fishing industry. Fishing is a key sector in the South West, supporting more than 2,000 jobs in Plymouth alone.
Call4Fish, an initiative which started here in Plymouth has gone from strength to strength and has today been featured on This Morning, with young fisherman of the year 2017 Brackan Pearce talking about Call 4 Fish.
Business Grants:
Hundreds of eligible businesses in Plymouth have not yet applied for grants to help them through the COVID-19 pandemic.
We are now actively looking for and contacting businesses that could benefit from the Small Business Grant Fund and the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund, which offers grants of up to £25,000.
In less than four weeks we’ve approved nearly 3,000 grant applications and have paid out £32million directly to businesses.
Read more about how we’re calling out to eligible businesses to apply here
Supporting the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Sector:
Together with Plymouth Octopus Project (POP) and Plymouth Social Enterprise Network this week we’ve developed and launched a new online portal for the Voluntary, Community and Social Enterprise Sector to access business support and advice to help them through COVID-19.
This portal includes signposting to national help and sector specific advice, funding streams available and data that may be useful in applying for grants and funding applications. The team will be continuing to update this portal with the latest information as it’s available so that it’s as useful as possible for this important sector in the city.
Our lobbying for business support continues:
Our lobbying work continues and we’re still working with the LGA and our partners the Chamber of Commerce and FSB we’re lobbying to plug the gaps for support for small businesses.
This continues to focus primarily on:
- Support for the 400 Plymouth businesses in managed workspaces not currently eligible for the business grant scheme due to packaged rent and rates
- Lobbying for improved response from private lenders to break down the slow and bureaucratic response of banks in dealing with the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme applications.