Responsible Finance provider boosts CBILS funding and launches new loan products
Business Enterprise Fund (BEF), the Yorkshire-based responsible finance provider has received an increased allocation of CBILS guarantee to help SMEs deal with the impact of the Covid-19 crisis. BEF welcomes applications from £50,001 to £150,000 from businesses that have been affected by Covid-19.
Simon Jackson, Head of Lending at BEF said: “We have delivered a record-breaking £11m in support to businesses across the North and beyond during lockdown. This additional allocation enables us to support more businesses who are struggling to
Procurement Opportunity: Start-up Support Service – Workshops, Masterclasses and Peer-to-Peer Development Programme
The Humber LEP Business Growth Hub is seeking to commission a supplier to provide additional resources to add value to the Growth Hub’s existing start-up support capacity through provision of a Start-up Support Service – Workshops, Masterclasses and a Peer-to-Peer Development Programme.
This will consist of a range of online sessions as follows:
a set of core pre-start workshop topics delivered on a regular basisless frequent masterclasses on particular start up topics to cover sector-based,
business model or trend-based contentfacilitated peer-to-peer
sessions to
Job Retention: Updated guidance
Job Retention: Updated guidance
On 2 October HMRC published guidance on the Job
Retention Bonus and what needs to be done to claim it. Further information is
available at: https://bit.ly/3iEtzDO
HMRC also published updated guidance on 2 October on wages claims through
the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. The guidance can be found at: https://bit.ly/2zdheFnSmall Business
Leadership Programme and Peer Network Scheme
You may also be interested to see information published in early August
about The Small Business Leadership Programme and Peer Network Scheme that aims
to enhance resilience and recovery from COVID-19.
This information
The Prime Minister plans to transform the training and skills system
The Prime Minister has set out plans to transform the training and skills system to help the country recover from coronavirus. The plans include a Lifetime Skills Guarantee to give adults the chance to take free college courses valued by employers and new entitlement to flexible loans to allow courses to be taken in segments, boosting opportunities to retrain. A press release issued by the Prime Minister’s Office is available at: https://bit.ly/2S7DCWO. The PM’s speech can be read at: https://bit.ly/3n4AjxV. This included an expansion
Winter Economy Plan
The Chancellor outlined additional government support for businesses and workers impacted by coronavirus across the UK. Key features include:
• A Job Support Scheme: introduced from 1 November to protect viable jobs in businesses who are facing lower demand over the winter months due to coronavirus. The scheme will run for six months and will be open to businesses across the UK even if they have not previously used the furlough scheme. It is designed to sit alongside
Procurement Opportunity: Humber Peer Networks Programme
The Humber LEP Business Growth Hub is seeking
to commission suppliers to deliver a Humber Peer Networks Programme.
Peer Networks is a national initiative funded by
the Department for Business, Environment and Industrial Strategy that is being
delivered locally through the Local Enterprise Partnership (LEP) network and
their respective Growth Hubs. The
programme’s longer-term aims are focused on reducing the UK productivity gap by
helping business leaders find practical solutions to strategic and operational
challenges.
The Invitation to Tender is available on
Yortender and requires the delivery of a
Further measures to tackle coronavirus 22 September
The Prime Minister has this afternoon made a statement to the House of Commons outlining further measures in England to tackle the spread of coronavirus. The PM’s statement can be found at: https://bit.ly/3hUilKI
From tomorrow, Wednesday 23 September, office workers who are able to work from home should do so and the requirement for customers to wear face coverings will be extended to all users of taxis and private hire vehicles.
From Thursday 24 September measures including the following will be introduced:
Our Government Grant Schemes to boost the Covid-19 recovery of small businesses and Kick-starting Tourism have now closed.
We have now closed our Covid-19 Recovery Grant Schemes to new Expressions of Interest (EOIs). This is because we have received more grant applications than we are able to offer grants to, since opening to applications at 11am on Tuesday 15th September. Demand has therefore been unprecedented.
We realise that this will be disappointing to you, however
the Humber Business Growth Hub was allocated a fixed budget from Government to
operate this grant scheme, and demand for these grants has proven to
Hull businesses offered new support to go green
Hull businesses are being
offered an exciting opportunity to become more energy efficient, thanks to a
new council-led scheme that launches today.
The Hull Business Energy Efficiency Scheme (HBEES) is a new project led by Hull
City Council and part-funded by the 2014 – 2020 European Regional Development
Fund Programme.
The scheme offers a whole host of measures that will assist businesses in
reducing their contribution to greenhouses gases, including the installation of
new technology, access to expertise and advice, as well as access to grant
funding to invest
The Pensions Regulator Communications toolkits for AE and pension scams
TPR have been keeping a close eye on pensions throughout the COVID crisis, making sure that we support both employers and savers during this time.
You may have noticed that they have recently launched two campaigns with important messages about automatic enrolment and pension scams.
Here is the link to the tool kit