BUSINESS REPORT


POLICY MATTERS


The Chamber’s Policy Manager CHRISTOPHER JONES represents your views to the people who matter


There is no doubt of the main issue that is affecting businesses across Northamptonshire: Covid-19. The coronavirus has hit almost every aspect of life across the UK. At what is a worrying and stressful time clearly the first priority is the


health and wellbeing of friends, family and co-workers; however many businesses will be deeply worried about how to stay afloat with costs to cover while experiencing drastic reductions in revenue. In mid-March to mitigate the closure of most retail and leisure


facilities, along with the requirement to work at home if possible, the Government announced an unprecedented package of support for businesses; at the time of going to print these included grants for small businesses paying business rates, the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS), the Corporate Financing Facility, the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, the Self-employment Income Support Scheme,


Statutory Sick Pay support, HMRC Time to Pay and Deferral of VAT for three months. Frustratingly, although announced, many of these measures either


took time to organise or are still in process, for example money from the Self-employment Income Support Scheme is not expected until the beginning of June. Grants were supposed to be paid by local authorities to those paying business rates but it was subsequently found that they didn’t have bank details for the majority of those eligible and had to set up fraud proof methods of obtaining these. Many members reported problems with CBILS with banks trying to offer loans on normal commercial terms and initially asking for personal guarantees. At every stage your Chamber of Commerce has tried to assist, setting


up a Coronavirus Helpline both to help businesses through the sometimes bewildering array of schemes and to collate the problems and gaps in the measures and feed these back to the Government.


If you think we can help or have experienced any problems with an aspect of the Government’s support please do let us know by ringing the Helpline on 01604 490414 or emailing policy@northants-chamber.co.uk


JUNE/JULY 2020 inbusiness 9


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