City of Wolverhampton Council has provided further guidance to employers and businesses on how to access the support options available to them during the coronavirus outbreak.

The detail of the Government’s additional economic measures was confirmed over the weekend and the council is acting swiftly to help administer them.

Information on business rates, business grants, labour costs and welfare, business loans and deferring tax liabilities can be found in the employer and business section at www.wolverhampton.gov.uk/coronavirus.

These are the latest government measures, with full details on each, available at http://bit.ly/2IUD02v:

• a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
• deferring VAT and Income Tax payments
• a Statutory Sick Pay relief package for SMEs
• a 12-month business rates holiday for all retail, hospitality, leisure and nursery businesses in England
• small business grant funding of £10,000 for all business in receipt of small business rate relief or rural rate relief
• grant funding of £25,000 for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with property with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000
• the Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme offering loans of up to £5 million for SMEs through the British Business Bank (eligibility details and how to apply: https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/ourpartners/coronavirus-business-interruption-loan-scheme-cbils/)
• a new lending facility from the Bank of England to help support liquidity among larger firms, helping them bridge coronavirus disruption to their cash flows through loans
• the HMRC Time To Pay Scheme

Councillor Harman Banger, Cabinet Member for City Economy, said: “The fast-moving changes necessary to stop the spread of coronavirus is making it a hugely challenging time for all employers and businesses.

“We are continuing to work closely with regional partners to provide targeted advice and guidance or sign-post businesses to the best sources of help.

“One of our key priorities is working with central government to ensure the additional economic measures it has put in place are administered as swiftly as possible to maximise the benefit to employers and businesses.”

The council’s Business Rates Team is taking the following steps in relation to the recovery of business rates:

• Suspending court action for recovery of business rates after March 19
• Issuing reminder notices to encourage contact from businesses, so that we can understand their individual situation
• Suspending the issue of new cases for enforcement agent action
• Negotiating repayments where possible and/or agree to a hold in recovery action for a period where businesses are struggling

For any businesses/tenants that rent property from the council and wish to discuss their position, please contact the Estates Team, Corporate Landlord, by emailing property.enquiries@wolverhampton.gov.uk and options will be discussed.

The Black Country Growth Hub has information on local business support programmes and business advice: https://bcgrowthhub.com/coronavirus-covid19

The Federation of Small Business has information for small independent traders: https://www.fsb.org.uk/

Access to Business helps new businesses or if you are in the process of setting up in business: https://access2business.co.uk

The Black Country Chamber have online advice and a business helpline (01902 912322): https://www.blackcountrychamber.co.uk/campaigns-projects/covid19-business-support/

If you would like to speak to a member of the council’s Enterprise Team, please call Jay Patel (07584 491216) or Jeff Marlow (07392 137481). 

As an alternative you can leave your contact details and a short summary about your business via the email at Business.development@wolverhampton.gov.uk and you will receive a response from the team the same day.