Picture of Cllr Peter Jackson

Specialist hub is supporting Northumberland businesses

Northumberland County Council has established a specialist team to support businesses and employers both during and after the current Coronavirus outbreak.
 
The team is working together as the Northumberland Business Hub - helping people to access available support, providing advice and guidance, and finding out what the key issues are for the business community in the county.
 
The Government has announced significant support for businesses and individuals who may be suffering from hardship due to Coronavirus, and the council will be supporting the implementation of these, as well as delivering some directly within Northumberland.
 
Cllr Peter Jackson, leader of Northumberland County Council says: “Our business community is critical to the future prosperity of the county.  
 
“We know that these are extremely difficult times for businesses and employers, and we want to assure them that as a council we are doing everything that we can to provide help and support throughout.
 
“Our Northumberland Business Hub is a specialist team which is on hand to provide advice, guidance and help in accessing all the support that is available.”
 
Through the Northumberland Business Hub the council is working with Government, regional agencies and its partners at Advance Northumberland.
 
A key piece of work for the Hub is gathering information on how Covid-19 is impacting on the business community in the county, and an online survey is already running to gather these details.  
 
The information collected will be used to feed into future policy and support initiatives, and the council is already working on an economic recovery plan.
 
If you are a business and have a question, visit www.northumberland.gov.uk/businesshub and complete the enquiry form.
 
Measures that are currently available to businesses include:
  • a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
  • deferring VAT and Income Tax payments
  • a Statutory Sick Pay relief package for SMEs
  • a 12-month business rates holiday for all retail, hospitality, leisure and nursery businesses in England
  • small business grant funding of £10,000 for all business in receipt of small business rate relief or rural rate relief
  • grant funding of £25,000 for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with property with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000
  • the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme offering loans of up to £5 million for SMEs through the British Business Bank
  • a new lending facility from the Bank of England to help support liquidity among larger firms, helping them bridge coronavirus disruption to their cash flows through loans
  • the HMRC Time To Pay Scheme
  • Self-employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS), a grant worth 80% of profits up to a cap of £2,500 per month

Northumberland County Council is implementing the £10k and £25k grants and you can find details of how to register for these at www.northumberland.gov.uk/businesshub
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