CuparNow – Covid-19 Business Support Info: Updated 25/03/21

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Throughout the Covid-19 lockdown, CuparNow has been working hard to support all across our community.

This Blog brings together the links we have shared and will – ongoing – be the place where we share updates on formation to help our community’s businesses and organisations. The content featured is in chronological order – the most recent at the top of the page.

We have kept older information as some remains relevant ongoing but ask that you check with the relevant organisations and agencies that the information is relevant at the time of enquiry: thank you.

 

Key links …

 

Business Rate Reductions

A range of relief or discount schemes are in operation for 2021/22. Please use this link to visit Fife Council’s relevant pages.

 

Support for the Tourism & Events Sector

“At the end of 2020, the Scottish Government announced that tourism and hospitality businesses across Scotland were to benefit from a £104.3 million Scottish Government package. Visit Scotland will be administering nine of the Scottish Government funds and will move their focus from marketing to funding and support for the next three months to ensure that desperately needed help is delivered quickly, to those most in need.”

 

Extending support for hospitality, retail and leisure …

A top-up to the grant support available for hospitality, retail and leisure businesses across Scotland closed by level 4 restrictions will be paid following an announcement by the Scottish Government. In addition to the grants businesses receive through the Strategic Business Framework Fund, eligible businesses will also get a one off grant. For more info, to check availability and to make an application, follow this link.

More support and advice on applications can be found at Business Gateway Fife.

 

Strategic Framework Business Fund

The Covid-19 Strategic Framework Business Fund is being administered by Fife Council on behalf of the Scottish Government as a response to the Covid-19 Restrictions. Please note that if you have already applied for this fund you do not need to reapply as your first application will cover you as we move between levels. More information can be found via this link.

For news from the Scottish Government on how businesses can get additional and faster access to financial support can be found via this link.

 

Scotland’s Events Recovery Fund

Scotland’s Events Recovery Fund (SERF) has been established in conjunction with Scottish Government to help Scotland?s events sector plan and deliver events through to the end of 2021, and to provide support as the industry responds and adapts to the effects of COVID-19. Click here for more.

 

Small Business Grant: apply for £100 (PLEASE NOTE: THIS FUND IS NOW CLOSED)

Small businesses in Cupar can now apply for a £100 grant towards the cost of public health and safety measures required to reopen safely and cope with Covid-19. Fife Council is committed to supporting town centres, and small businesses can now apply for help with the cost of Covid-19 public health measures.

  • What is being funded? Grants can reimburse costs already incurred. Eligible expenditure can include:
    • PPE, such as face masks, visors, gloves for use by staff or customers.
    • Hand sanitiser & sanitiser dispensing units.Protective screens installed at cash-desks and other public interface areas.
    • Internal signage related to public safety.
    • Other items may be considered eligible at the discretion of Fife Council.
  • Who can apply?
    • Small Businesses only. To be eligible for consideration, the applicant business must:
    • Operate from business premises that are accessed by the public.
    • Have no more than three business outlets in a business chain.
    • Have no more than 5 FTE employees per business outlet.

Any business needing further help or advice on this, or other forms of support available, can get in touch with Business Gateway Fife on 01592 858333 or email info@bgfife.co.uk The Covid-19 Measures-Small Business Grant is one of a range of new initiatives in Fife to support town centres in 2020-21, enabled by support from the Towns and BIDs Resilience and Recovery Fund (TCRRF). The TCRRF is administered by the Scotlands Towns Partnership on behalf of Scottish Government.

 

Phase 3 Update

Please follow this link for the latest information issued by the Scottish Government on Phase 3 of the Covid-19 routemap.

 

Final Phase 2 Measures – including Face Masks

“Following the successful introduction of mandatory face coverings on public transport, the measure will be extended to include retail settings from Friday, 10 July, in line with expected changes to other lockdown measures on that date.” You can read more on the announcement via this link.

 

Help for Bars & Pubs

Diageo launches multi-million recovery fund for bars: “Our new global programme, ‘Raising the Bar’, will support pubs and bars to welcome customers back and recover following the COVID-19 pandemic …”

Click this link to register for the programme.

 

Scottish Government – Phase 2 Update

Please click on the tables below for the full downloadable PDF. Calling all businesses, business owners, managers and employees in and around Cupar …

Fife Council is collating much-needed information to develop recovery plans to help address the effects of the coronavirus pandemic on towns and local shopping centres across Fife. A vital part of this planning is to support our local businesses as our town centres begin to re-open.

This survey is for all businesses and business owners, managers and employees of businesses whose premises are normally open to the public.

The answers you provide will help inform how town centres are safely managed for all. This is likely to include reduced capacity in business premises, queuing outside businesses and the potential for some business to use outdoor space. In some areas, there will be a need to reduce the amount of road space available for vehicles, potentially including pedestrianisation schemes. Fife Council assure us that they will take account of different user groups and servicing of businesses in their plans. They also appreciate that some answers will be based on estimates or guess work at this stage. Please share with others who might be interested. Thank you.

 

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is changing …

“From 1 July, employers can bring back to work employees that have previously been furloughed for any amount of time and any shift pattern, while still being able to claim the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme grant for their normal hours not worked. When claiming the grant for furloughed hours employers will need to report and claim for a minimum period of a week. The scheme will close to new entrants from 30 June. From this point onwards, employers will only be able to furlough employees that they have furloughed for a full 3 week period prior to 30 June.

This means that the final date by which an employer needs to agree with their employee and ensure they place them on furlough is 10 June. Employers will have until 31 July to make any claims in respect of the period to 30 June. Further guidance on flexible furloughing and how employers should calculate claims will be published on 12 June. Find out more information on how the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme is changing.”

 

Advice for the Retail Sector

Guidance for the retail sector including procedures for staff and customer safety and an operations checklist.

You can view and download the checklist via this link.

“This guidance is for the retail sector in Scotland. It comes into effect immediately – from 26 May 2020 – and extends until further notice. It will be reviewed in line with the regular three weekly review of lockdown requirements. We have worked with employers and trade unions to ensure that this guidance is evidence-based, fair and ethical, clear and realistic. As each workplace is different it is for individual businesses to work with trade unions or workforce representatives selected by employees to determine how best to apply this guidance in their circumstances. This document is one of a set of documents about how to work safely in different types of workplace. It is designed to be relevant for people who work in or run shops, branches, stores or similar environments. It should be applied at the local level. Each business will need to translate this into the specific actions it needs to take depending on the nature of their business (i.e. the size and type of business, how it is organised, operated, managed and regulated) using this document as a guide. It has been designed to be applied to cover the spectrum of different retailers in Scotland from department stores to independent traders. See the operational guide for retailers section which has a downloadable checklist for retailers with actions to consider.” You can find more via this link.

 

Legionella risks during the coronavirus outbreak

“Employers, the self-employed and people in control of premises, such as landlords, have a duty to identify and control risks associated with legionella. If your building was closed or has reduced occupancy during the coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak, water system stagnation can occur due to lack of use, increasing the risks of Legionnaires’ disease. You should review your risk assessment and manage the legionella risks to protect people when the water system is reinstated or returned to use. If the water system is still used regularly, maintain the appropriate measures to prevent legionella growth.” More can be found via this link – and an approved code of practice can be downloaded from here.

 

COVID-19: Moving your business from the physical to the digital

From the National Cyber Security Centre

“COVID-19 has seen many businesses shutter their physical premises and move their operations online, as far as possible. Internet shopping and home working have, almost overnight, become the norm. This shift in working practices is very likely to have changed the nature and priorities of the IT services and support which your business requires. For sole traders or small business owners, establishing exactly what new cyber security measures you need to put in place can seem like quite a challenge. This guidance will help you determine how ready your business is for this digital transition and point the way to any new cyber security measures you should put in place.”

 

Self Employed – Update

Self-Employment Income Support Scheme: if you’re self-employed or a member of a partnership and have been adversely affected by coronavirus (COVID-19) find out if you can use this scheme to claim a grant. Just follow this link for more.

 

Working Safely

The UK Government has updated information on their site to share guidance to help employers, employees and the self-employed understand how to work safely during the coronavirus pandemic. In consultation with industry, they have produced guidance to help ensure workplaces are as safe as possible. The following is taken from the site and provides the latest advice for different sectors – each link providing information with downloadable guides.

These 8 guides cover a range of different types of work. Many businesses operate more than one type of workplace, such as an office, factory and fleet of vehicles. You may need to use more than one of these guides as you think through what you need to do to keep people safe.

 

Bounce Back Loan Scheme

The Bounce Back Loan scheme – will help small and medium-sized businesses to borrow between 2,000 and 50,000. The UK government will guarantee 100% of the loan and there won’t be any fees or interest to pay for the first 12 months. Loan terms will be up to 6 years and no repayments will be due during the first 12 months. The government will work with lenders to agree a low rate of interest for the remaining period of the loan and the scheme will be delivered through a network of accredited lenders.

  • Is my business eligible?
    • You can apply for a loan if your business is based in the UK has been negatively affected by coronavirus was not an ‘undertaking in difficulty’ on 31 December 2019
  • You won’t be eligible if your business falls into one of the following:
    • banks, insurers and reinsurers (but not insurance brokers)
    • public-sector bodies
    • further-education establishments, if they are grant-funded
    • state-funded primary and secondary schools

You cannot apply if you’re already claiming under the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS). If you’ve already received a loan of up to 50,000 under CBILS and would like to transfer it into the Bounce Back Loan scheme, you can arrange this with your lender until 4 November 2020. More information is available via this link.

 

Scottish Government Business Support Fund

Grant support is now available to help business deal with the impact of COVID-19. The purpose of these one-off grants is to help protect jobs, prevent business closure and promote economic recovery. Two types of grant are available to ratepayers:

10,000 grant to ratepayers of businesses in receipt of the Small Business Bonus Scheme or Rural Relief.’?Business with a rateable value up to 18,000 are eligible. You can also get this grant if you applied for Nursery Relief or Disabled Relief, Fresh Start Relief and Business Growth Accelerator but are eligible for the Small Business Bonus Scheme.

Retail, hospitality and leisure business ratepayers with a rateable value between 18,001 – 50,999 can apply for a one-off grant of 25,000.

This grant is being administered for Fife by Fife Council on behalf of the Scottish Government.

For full information, follow this link.

 

Self-employment Income Support Scheme

Use this scheme if you’re self-employed or a member of a partnership and have lost income due to coronavirus (COVID-19).

 

Bridging Bursary Fund

The second phase of the Creative Scotland Bridging Bursary Fund has opened for applications.
An additional 2 million is now available to meet high demand (21 April).

 

Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme

Check if you can claim for your employees’ wages through the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. The scheme is now open for applications.
You need to create a UK Government Gateway account in order to apply.
You can also read this step-by-step guide for employers (20 April 2020).

The Job Retention Scheme has also been extended to four months, covering period from 1 March to end of June (17 April 2020)

 

Screen Scotland Support

Screen Scotland have launched a Bridging Bursary for freelance or self-employed screen practitioners who have lost income from their work due to COVID-19. They have also announced development support of between 3,000- 50,000 for Scotland’s independent film and TV production companies (17 April 2020).

 

Construction Sector Help

i-Con Innovation Challenge Fund is open for solutions providers with close to market ideas that could help the Scottish construction sector right now or with recovery. (17 April 2020).

 

Companies House Support

Companies House will give businesses the time they need to update their records and help them avoid being struck off the register (16 April 2020).

 

Need more?

To the best of our knowledge, the information we are sharing is accurate and current. We will do all we can to maintain this information to help support those in our community. You can find more information through this link from Fife Council. If you have any questions, please do not hesitate to contact us.

 

CuparNow – Your Digital Improvement District

In line with the Business Plan shared in 2019 and the information provided to non-domestic rate paying businesses and organisations who had the vote in December’s Ballot, we are here to support more than 450 businesses and organisations across Cupar with managed, integrated digital communication – delivered daily across multiple channels. Those channels include:

So much of the landscape has changed since we won the Ballot in December – and continues to change. We are working with different community groups to offer our support: one example – we have helped the Food Bank to set up a new Facebook page (https://www.facebook.com/TheCuparFoodBank/) as their old page was defunct. We’re also working with the Food Bank and several businesses who are looking to make donations of produce to help them. For more on the day to day delivery, please check our Facebook page.

 

Our Covid-19 Recovery Plan

At the end of March, aware of the turmoil being created by Covid-19 related disruption, we asked Fife Council to postpone the issue of CuparNow’s invoices for 2020. They were due to be posted to all non-domestic rate paying businesses and organisations within the improvement district area on the 1st April. We are in ongoing discussions with Fife Council re how CuparNow’s services can be best supported through the coming weeks and months and we will share more as and when we have confirmation.

We continue to work – every day – to deliver support where we can: we have also created our own Recovery Plan that outlines much of what we have been doing during the lockdown and, as restrictions ease, what we will continue to deliver to support the town.

Just click here to read and/or download.

 

Thanks for reading.