Good Afternoon

Update 1 April 2021 - Please see below a link to a press release about East Suffolk Council preparing to process the new one-off Restart Grants to help businesses as they look to re-open.

https://www.eastsuffolk.gov.uk/news/new-grants-to-help-businesses-re-open-safely/

Please share this with your networks as you see appropriate.

Best regards

East Suffolk Economic Development Team

East Suffolk Council

economicdevelopment@eastsuffolk.gov.uk

www.eastsuffolk.gov.uk| www.eastsuffolkmeansbusiness.co.uk

 

Welcome to issue 27 of the Suffolk Growth Partnership weekly round-up, providing you with the latest information and giving you a single source for data / reports / surveys that have crossed Suffolk Growth’s desk in the last week. Please share widely with your teams and wider networks.

 Suffolk Growth is leading on coordinating our response and recovery for our economy and businesses due to the impact of COVID-19. 
Visit the Economy & Business Recovery webpage here
Suffolk Growth wishes everyone a very merry Christmas and happy New Year. Please stay safe and follow Government guidance when you're out and about. 
We will be taking a break from the weekly round-up and will return on Friday, 8 January 2021 with the latest updates on the EU withdrawal. 
 
 

Government guidance and advice
Suffolk's response to coronavirus: latest guidance - *NEW* Christmas Bubbles

The following infographics provides you with the latest guidance on how to safe during the coronavirus pandemic. To find out more about Suffolk's response visit: https://www.suffolk.gov.uk/coronavirus-covid-19/suffolks-response/ 
Suffolk Safer Places: current guidance
The Suffolk Safer Places work cell have produced a summary document of all current guidance to support our businesses, residents and communities. View the latest guidance here.

Government’s most up to date advice & guidance: Coronavirus (COVID-19): Business support - GOV.UK (www.gov.uk)

Extension to the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme: This scheme (CJRS) has been extended until the end of March 2021 for all parts of the UK.  
  • From 1 November, the UK Government will pay 80% of employees’ usual wages for the hours not worked, up to a cap of £2,500 per month. The terms of the scheme will be reviewed in January. 
  • You must continue to pay the associated employer National Insurance contributions and any pension contributions from your own funds. 
  • You and your employees do not need to have benefitted from the scheme before, to claim for periods after 1 November. 
  • There are now monthly deadlines for claims. This means that you may need to submit earlier than you have in previous months. 
  • You must submit any claims for November, no later than 14 December. 
The full guidance for claims from November onwards, including how you can check if you’re eligible and how to calculate and make a claim online, can be found here. 

Guidance for businesses and organisations on how to recognise, contain and report incidents of coronavirus: this page has been updated with a section ‘Early outbreak management action card example’. Check updated information contained within the “action card” here 
 

Government & other grants available


Wet-led pubs grant announced
Prime Minister Boris Johnson has (on Tuesday 1 December) announced an additional £1,000 Christmas grant for ‘wet-led pubs’ in tiers 2 and 3 who will miss out on much needed business during the busy Christmas period.

Pubs that predominantly serve alcohol rather than provide food have been asked to make huge sacrifices over the festive season and will be eligible for a one-off £1000 to help make ends meet.

The payment will be a one-off for December and will be paid on top on the existing £3,000 monthly cash grants for businesses. This will cover those in tiers 2 and 3 forced to reduce their operations as a result of the latest regional measures put in place to contain transmission of the virus.

Find out more here.

Visitor & Wider Economy Grant Schemes 
The Visitor & Wider Economy Grant Schemes offer grants from £1,000 to £3,000 to support local businesses, who operate in the visitor economy sector/supply chain or are part of the wider economy, to respond to the immediate COVID-19 crisis and help them implement their planned projects. These grants are offered at 100% of intervention rate and no match matching is required. 

Should you require business support, including advice on grants, please contact New Anglia Growth Hub on 0300 333 6536 or email growthhub@newanglia.co.uk 
 

Partnership working
Have your say in the future of transport in the East of England 

Help shape the future of transport in the East of England by completing a short survey from Transport East. The survey is seeking feedback from the public on current transport use, changes relating to COVID-19 and future travel requirements across the region.  

The survey will close at 11.59pm on Sunday 17th January 2021. ​Complete the survey here.
Suffolk Climate Emergency Plan

All councils in Suffolk have:

  • acknowledged the climate emergency
  • committed to reducing their own carbon emissions
  • committed to working with partners across the county and region (including the LEP and the Public Sector Leaders) towards making Suffolk carbon neutral by 2030

Find out the latest work that has been undertaken by Suffolk Climate Change Partnership (SCCP) since the successful Transformation Challenge Award was made to the SCCP to support further delivery towards these joint commitments, Autumn 2019. View here.

A draft Suffolk Climate Emergency Plan will be made available for partner review and agreement in early 2021. This work will support central government’s commitment to a green economic recovery in Suffolk as well as addressing the urgent need to deal with the climate emergency.
CoronaWatch Suffolk
To view the latest Suffolk CoronaWatch e-bulletin please click here (updated 9 December 2020).

This bulletin provides an update on the current Covid-19 situation in Suffolk along with updates on the work being carried out as part of Suffolk’s Local Outbreak Control Plan.

Keep up with the latest CoronaWatch updates here.
 
Summary of CoronaWatch e-bulletin (9/12/2020)

  • 4 week national restrictions in England were in place from 5November until 2 December. This ended at midnight on 2 December. Following the national restrictions Suffolk has been placed into Tier 2 – High Alert.

  • In the 7 days up to the 7December, there have been 603 new cases of COVID-19 in Suffolk. This is an increase on the numbers in the previous week.
  • The underlying rate of new weekly cases in Suffolk is stable and is now, at 70.8 cases per 100,000 people. This has increased very slightly since last week but remains below the rates for the East of England region (131.4 / 100,000) and for England as a whole (149.2 / 100,000).
  • In total, up to the 27November, there have been 632 deaths in Suffolk where COVID-19 was recorded on the death certificate. There have been 20 COVID-19 related deaths in the last 7 days.
  • The estimated ‘R’ value for the East of England is between 0.9 and 1.0 which has decreased in the last week, but remains slightly higher than the ‘R’ value for England (0.8– 1.0).
 

Support for our businesses and sectors
Suffolk Chamber of Commerce updates
Restart | Rebuild | Renew – Business Hub
Keep up with the latest news here: https://www.suffolkchamber.co.uk/business-support/restart-rebuild-renew-covid-19-hub/

Suffolk Chamber of Commerce: 2020 final events!
A range of events is on offer to wrap up the 2020 Suffolk Chamber events. Events include: Understanding Incoterms 2020, understanding exporting, trading with the EU post Brexit and Customs declarations training course. 

Find out more and book now here.
Business evictions ban extended until March 2021
Business owners affected by the pandemic will be protected from eviction until the end of March 2021. This final extension to protections from the threat of eviction will give landlords and tenants 3 months to come to an agreement on unpaid rent. Further guidance to support negotiations between landlords and tenants will also be published shortly. A review of commercial landlord and tenant legislation has also been announced, to address concerns that the current framework does not reflect the current economic conditions. More information is available here. 

Resources to help you plan for the end of the Transition Period
New Anglia LEP EU Exit Transition Hub

There is now a transition period until the end of 2020, while the UK and EU negotiate additional arrangements.

The current rules on trade, travel, and business for the UK and EU will continue to apply during the transition period.

For more information and to sign up for Government email alerts about the transition period, visit the Government website.

To find the latest information on: borders, movement & travel, people & employees, exporting & importing, guidance for SME's and sector specific guidance please visit: EU Exit - New Anglia 

Agri-food sector support
Exit payments: What should farmers do to prepare for 2022?
Farmers in England learned last week that Defra is planning to offer them the chance to take a lump sum exit payment in 2022 instead of collecting their remaining Basic Payment Scheme (BPS) support annually as it is phased out by 2028.

The government’s objective is to accelerate the pace at which farmers who are unwilling or unable to transition to the Environmental Land Management scheme – which will replace BPS – make way for other farmers who are.

Find out more here.

Nuffield to open applications for next round of scholarships
Farmers dreaming of learning from farms around the world should start planning their Nuffield scholarship applications now for a trip in 2022, organisers have said.

The prestigious annual award gives winners about £7,000 towards travel and subsistence expenses while they travel the globe researching topics of interest in  farming, food horticulture or rural industries.

The application window opens on 13 January and closes on 31 July 2021.

Find out more and how to apply here
 
 

National reports
New report: government warned not to overlook counties in buses strategy 
The County Councils Network and the County All-Party Parliamentary Group has released a new report examining the decline of rural buses.

The report, which contains evidence from county authorities and transport experts, finds that services in counties are operating at minimum levels following years of funding reductions. There were 97 million fewer bus journeys in 2019 across 36 counties compared to a decade ago.

To find out more and read the report, view here.