Latest guidance on local restrictions
It’s been a fairly turbulent week in terms of Greater Manchester’s local restriction situation.
Following a decision on Friday 28 August that Stockport, Bolton and Trafford would leave local restrictions on Wednesday 2 September to fall in line with the rest of England, a spike in case numbers has resulted in Bolton and Trafford keeping restrictions whilst Stockport moved ahead with leaving.
Official guidance now requests that different households across seven of Greater Manchester’s ten boroughs should not mix indoors, including at venues such as museums and galleries, hotels, pubs, bars and restaurants. Additionally, face coverings should now be used at a range of tourism, hospitality and leisure businesses and attractions – a full list can be found on the UK Government website.
Stricter rules are now in place for Oldham where people are asked not to meet anyone outside of their own household in any place, including parks, outdoor bars or restaurants, and are also asked to avoid using public transport unless for school or work. In contrast, as noted above, Wigan and Stockport have been excluded from the local restrictions, bringing them in line with rules that apply across the rest of England.
It is incredibly important we abide by these temporary rules, alongside social distancing and frequent handwashing to reduce the rate of infection in Greater Manchester, and to avoid further stringent measures.
The situation can change at any point, so we continue to ask our partners to stay vigilant, follow the rules and get in touch with our Tourism and Hospitality Support Hub team if you need support.
New funding to help SMEs recover from Covid-19
Following the recent announcement that the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government will be issuing ERDF grants through the Growth Hub network, Business Growth Hub is currently applying for Greater Manchester’s allocation which we believe will be agreed late August to early September.
There have already been a high number of applications; however, there is a requirement for 25% of the grants to be awarded to the Visitor Economy sector in Greater Manchester, so we would like you to take a look at the grant and consider if you or an SME that you know might qualify for a grant.
To find out more please click here.
UK Government Kickstart jobs scheme
The government has introduced a new Kickstart scheme in Great Britain; a £2 billion fund to create hundreds of thousands of high-quality 6-month work placements aimed at those aged 16 to 24 who are on Universal Credit and are deemed to be at risk of long-term unemployment.
Funding available for each job will cover 100% of the relevant National Minimum Wage for 25 hours a week, plus the associated employer National Insurance contributions and employer minimum automatic enrolment contributions.
To help smaller businesses, employers offering fewer than 30 placements will be asked to make a bid through an intermediary, such as a Local Authority or Chamber of Commerce, who will then bid for 30 or more placements as a combined bid from several businesses. This will make the process easier and less labour intensive to apply for these smaller companies who only want to hire one or two Kickstarters.
To find out more please click here.
Find Your Space campaign update
We’re delighted to let you know that since launching our Find Your Space campaign the website has received 86,000 page views and our #FindYourSpaceMCR social media content has generated 752,000 impressions on Twitter and 2.04 million impressions on Facebook.
The Find Your Space campaign was due to work in coordination with the government’s Enjoy Summer Safely Campaign. This however is temporarily being paused in Greater Manchester and will restart as soon as the local restrictions are lifted. .
We are continuously updating the content on these pages as well as our Manchester pages as usual, so if you have useful content or contributions please continue to send them to Ryan.Maley@marketingmanchester.com.
Transport for Greater Manchester factsheet for business
Ahead of hundreds of thousands of people across Greater Manchester returning to work and school in September, we all need to play our part in keeping everyone safe, cycling or walking where possible and avoiding the busiest times of days for journeys if we can.
Businesses need to play their part too, by taking action to support your staff to return to work in the safest way possible. A new factsheet from Transport for Greater Manchester (TfGM) has advice and information on travel in Greater Manchester, outlines what TfGM and transport operators are doing to keep people safe and what you and your employees can do to help.
To download the factsheet please click here.
Help needed with Covid-19 self-catering survey
The Professional Association of Self-Caterers (PASC UK) and the Association of Scotland’s Self-Caterers (ASSC) have commissioned a survey to evaluate the effects of Covid-19 on the self-catering sector across the UK. The survey will also help to identify what the sector’s business priorities are over the next 12 months to support recovery and growth.
The results will be shared with English, Scottish and Welsh Governments to inform autumn budgets and spending reviews, as well as policy decisions going forward.
The survey is being undertaken by The South West Research Company. Answers will be treated as strictly confidential and will be combined with those from other businesses in various regions to provide overall results.
To access the survey please click here.
Partner news you should know about
Some welcome news from our partners that we think you should know about:
- Ten things to do in Greater Manchester this week (5-11 September)
- Dippy on Tour: A Natural History Adventure set to reopen in Rochdale
- Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art reopens
- Manchester Art Gallery to open more days each week
- Local expertise builds Manchester’s new £8 million casino
Please email your news to press@marketingmanchester.com FAO of Andy Parkinson and also add this email address to your media/press distribution lists.
Tourism and Hospitality Support Hub
Throughout the COVID-19 crisis the Tourism and Hospitality Support Hub has been available to ensure that tourism and hospitality businesses are given the most up to date information including reopening standards and guidance. We have streamlined the Hub to give the most useful information; however, we will continue to deliver the service throughout the reopening of the visitor economy and anyone who needs specific and detailed support should contact supporthub@marketingmanchester.com for bespoke help and advice.
Latest Links
- The advice for food businesses has been updated with revised language in relation to self-isolation. The guidance encourages employers to enable workers to follow any advice to self-isolate and to support them when in isolation.
- The daily visitors to DCMS sponsored museums and galleries data has been updated (up until 30 August)
- Restaurants and other food service businesses that have already registered for Eat Out to Help out must submit a claim for reimbursement until 30 September 2020.
- Updated video for the Self-Employment Income Support Scheme
- Information about the Kickstart scheme