Coronavirus Business Advice Updates

Stay up to date with the latest information & announcements
which may affect your business.

The coronavirus pandemic is firstly a health emergency, but secondly an economic emergency. This page aims to keep businesses up to date with the latest advice and information available from the local councils and the Government.

Announcements

Last Updated 4th July

For Business

Restart-Rebuild-Renew – How Cumbria Business Growth Hub can help you move forward: Read more here

Please find today’s key government updates below:

1) Test & Trace guidance: Maintaining records of staff, customers & visitors
The easing of social and economic lockdown measures following the COVID-19 outbreak is being supported by NHS Test and Trace. Organisations in certain sectors should assist this service by keeping a temporary record of customers and visitors for 21 days, in a way that is manageable for your organisation, and assists NHS Test and Trace with requests for that data if needed. This could help contain clusters or outbreaks.
 
Sectors that this guidance applies to:
  • Hospitality, including pubs, bars, restaurants and cafés;
  • Tourism and leisure, including hotels, museums, cinemas, zoos and theme parks;
  • Close contact services, including hairdressers, barbershops and tailors;
  • Facilities provided by local authorities, including town halls and civic centres for events, community centres, libraries and children’s centres; and
  • Places of worship, including use for events and other community activities.
 
Full guidance can be found here: https://bit.ly/CV19BusinessTT.
 
2) Restaurants, pubs, bars and takeaway services reopening safely
From Saturday 4th July, most of the pubs and restaurants we love will be reopening. We have shared the following tweet, which explains how pubs and restaurants will keep customers and staff safe. We would appreciate you retweeting on your own channels where possible: https://twitter.com/HMGNorth/status/1278985887968264194
 
The video can be downloaded and shared organically https://we.tl/t-BldgiooTZG
 
Hospitality safer working guidance can be found here: http://bit.ly/RestaurantsPubsNorth
 
3) Self-isolation lifted for lower risk countries
Passengers returning or visiting from certain destinations, which pose a reduced risk to the public health of UK citizens, including Spain and Italy, will no longer need to self-isolate when arriving in England, Transport Secretary Grant Shapps will set out today (3 July 2020).
 
Passengers returning to or visiting England from certain destinations including Germany, France, Spain and Italy, will no longer need to self-isolate on arrival from 10 July 2020. The FCO will set out exemptions for a number of destinations from its global advisory against ‘all but essential’ international travel, with changes coming into effect on 4 July 2020. In addition, all passengers, except those on a small list of exemptions, will still be required to provide contact information on arrival in the UK. 
 
The full news story can be found here – https://bit.ly/SelfIsolationChanges – and further guidance will follow. 
 
4) Employee return-to-work tool
The government has developed a tool to help employees in England easily assess if they can return to work. The tool guides employees through questions that may influence their ability to go back to work safely. Employers can share this tool with employees to aid discussion on how employees can return to work safely. 
 
Please find out more here: https://bit.ly/employeetoolnorth
 
As ever, please do share these trackable links through your network and if you have any questions, please email our dedicated business enquiries mailbox (covid19-partnerships@cabinetoffice.gov.uk).
 
5) Anti-littering assets
In order to reduce littering and anti-social behaviour, and encourage the public to clean up public spaces and take their rubbish home, we have developed an Anti-litter toolkit with links to updated assets.
Please also consider sharing this tweet: https://twitter.com/HMGNorth/status/1279022281747042305
 
6) GREAT Inspirations campaign
The GREAT Inspirations campaign celebrates some of the many UK businesses that have done extraordinary things during the Covid-19 pandemic.
The webpage is now live, and companies from across the North feature – https://bit.ly/GREATinspirationsN
 
We have shared a twitter thread of the companies featured across the North here: https://twitter.com/HMGNorth/status/1278294043831779329?s=20
Assets

In this link https://we.tl/t-ac6YtPiOEs you will find:
  • 1 x 20 seconds – montage animation profiling a selection of the businesses to give a flavour and introduce the campaign
  • 1 X social media assets to be used on twitter and Instagram for each company 

Financial help for the self-employed
HMRC  help line for the self employed and businesses 0300 456 3565
HMRC number (0800 0159 559) for anyone with any tax worries

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-more-time-to-file-your-companys-accounts

Schools

Home Office Guidance on Key Workers re. Schools

Companies House:  Companies can apply for an extension if they are unable to file their accounts on time due to coronavirus. Extensions are generally given for up to 30 days.

https://www.gov.uk/guidance/apply-for-more-time-to-file-your-companys-accounts

NHS

NHS advice for the general public

Public Health England

Cumbria County Council

Government Assistance

Main Government coronavirus page

For Employees

Cabinet Office Latest Feedback:  Update to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme guidance

Check if-you could be covered by the coronavirus-job retention scheme

Claim for wage costs through the coronavirus job retention scheme

Allerdale Borough Council Frequently asked COVID 19 Questions

Q&A document here

You can contact the Allerdale Health Office directly with specific questions pam.shepherd@allerdale.gov.uk

Fire Safety Leaflet

Cumbria County Council have put together a Fire Safety Leaflet for businesses here

Allerdale Borough Council Reopening Businesses Guidance

As the government begins to ease the lockdown imposed to stop the spread of Covid-19, there are steps every organisation can do to ensure they reopen safely. Read more here

Government Announcement 25th May - Reopening

Full details of the announcement can be found here.

Guidance for reopening can be found here.

Andrew Marshall Covid 19 Business Support

Andrew Marshall, Chair of Cockermouth Chamber of Trade and business owner, is encouraging all Allerdale businesses to check if they are eligible to access the financial support being offered by the U.K. Government in response to the Covid-19 outbreak. Further information here.

Business Interruption Insurance

Mark Aspin, Director & Head of Dispute Resolution at Cartmell Shepherd, provides useful information on business interruption insurance here.

Business Interruption Insurance

Mark Aspin, Director & Head of Dispute Resolution at Cartmell Shepherd, provides useful information on business interruption insurance here.

Bounce Back Loan Scheme

This scheme will be launched on 4th May and will help small and medium-sized businesses to borrow between £2,000 and £50,000.
Full details are available here

Coronavirus outbreak FAQs: what you can and can't do

This guidance applies in England – people in Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland should follow the specific rules in those parts of the UK.

Working Safely

Guidance to help employers, employees and the self-employed understand how to work safely during the coronavirus pandemic here

Social distancing guidance for shops

Social distancing guidance for shops offering a delivery or pick-up system here

Launch of the Furlough Scheme Podcast

Joanne Stronach, Director and Head of Employment & HR at Cartmell Shepherd did a Q&A on the radio this lunchtime following the launch of the furlough scheme.

Listen to the podcast here

Cumbria Chamber of Commerce Covid-19 Toolkit

Cumbria Chamber of Commerce has produced a toolkit to help businesses mitigate the impacts of the Coronavirus outbreak.

View the Toolkit

Resources

We have started to pull together a resource toolkit to be used by businesses in town.  The aim here is to share good practice and to save time and effort across our businesses.

Please feel free to download these documents and posters to use and adapt.

All Businesses

Payment Type Poster

We are still open poster

Government Advice Poster

Food and Drink Businesses

COVID-19 support for restaurants and takeaways

EMPLOYEE BRIEFING – 19-3-2020
acas has useful advice for employers: https://www.acas.org.uk/coronavirus

General Advice for food service outlets

Support for restaurants and takeaways

If you have resources which you think may be useful to other businesses in town, please email them to The Cockermouth Chamber of Trade here and we will upload them to this page.

Let’s share good practice and help each other as much as possible.

Recommended Tech and Tools

Messaging: Chat software like Slack and Microsoft Teams allow seamless communication between individual team members, departments and the entire company.

Video Conferencing: Google Hangouts and Zoom offer video calls and conferencing.

Project Management: Trello is a great way to manage a project or workflow remotely.