Coronavirus support: industry update #6

We continue to direct our resource to support you and will be working on your behalf with GM stakeholders and national tourism bodies to represent you and to provide business support and guidance during this time.

Tourism and Hospitality Support Hub

To make sure that tourism and hospitality businesses are given the most up to date information, we have set up the Tourism and Hospitality Support Hub to signpost and connect the sector to advice, webinars, support and guidance across a variety of areas.

The Hub connects businesses to best practice and enable operators to share experiences – from finance to HR and possible redeployment of staff to legal advice. The site has received over 4,500 visits since the beginning of April.

The Hub includes a series of FAQs. If you have any specific questions or would like to talk to someone, we have set up an email address and number to contact us on: supporthub@marketingmanchester.com

The Tourism and Hospitality Support Hub is also able to offer full employment support and advice to those working within the Tourism and Hospitality sector. For anyone seeking employment in these challenging times there are a variety of temporary and permanent jobs with immediate starts available. Further details are available from our Employment Project Manager, Margaret.bartnikiewicz@gcemployment.uk

Government Launches ‘Support Finder’ Tool

A new ‘support finder’ tool has been launched to help businesses and self-employed people across the UK to determine what financial support is available to them during the COVID-19 pandemic.

The tool on www.gov.uk asks business owners and the self-employed to fill out a simple online questionnaire. Users are then directed to a list of all the financial support they may be eligible for.

Grant Funding totalling £629m available from GM Local Authorities

GM businesses may be entitled to a share of the £629m coronavirus grant funding available from Local Authorities in the region.

GC Business Growth Hub is helping to signpost the support that is available as part of its #HereForBusiness campaign in response to the impact of COVID-19.

Businesses that are the main rate payer of business rates can be eligible for grant support of between £10,000 and £25,000 and may miss out on vital financial support if they do not apply by the end of April.

  • The Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant Fund (RHLGF) will offer businesses in these sectors across Greater Manchester a grant of up to £25,000. This grant is for businesses in those sectors with a rateable value of less than £51,000 and who would have been eligible for the Expanded Retail Discount Scheme. For businesses with a rateable value of £15,000 or less the grant will be £10,000. For businesses with a rateable value of £15,000-£51,000 the grant will be £25,000.
  • The Small Business Grant Fund (SBGF) will provide businesses with a grant of £10,000 to help support them during the Covid-19 crisis. This grant is for businesses, with a property, that as of 11 March 2020, were in receipt of Small Business Rates Relief or Rural Rates Relief.

For further details and to apply go to your Local Authority area.

Employ GM

Employ GM is a new initiative from The Growth Company, which connects employers who have urgent temporary vacancies with individuals across Greater Manchester, who are available to start working straight away during the Coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic. Find out more here

Manchester Misses You campaign

The campaign, featured on the Visit Manchester website provides visitors with vibrant virtual content including cultural and education experiences from across Greater Manchester, that can be enjoyed from home.

The response to the campaign has been fantastic, with the website receiving 24,000 visitors over the past few weeks, 400,000 impressions on Twitter and over 700,000 impressions on Facebook.

We need more of your great content to share across our channels to keep feeding the campaign and showcasing the breath of our brilliant destination.  Recent features include;

Please send all contributions to stuart.aiken@marketingmanchester.com.

Useful links

Business support and advice

Health and well being

Surveys, workshops and webinars

Other

https://theredhat.co.uk