The Government is supporting businesses and their employees through a package of measures during this period of unprecedented disruption due to COVID-19. Part of this is the launch of a new website that offers buisnesses the right support, advice and information to help with the impact of coronavirus (Covid-19).
Business Closures and Stay at Home FAQs
To reduce social contact and help stop the spread of coronavirus, the Government has ordered certain businesses and venues to close. A list of these businesses can be found here.
With the exception of these organisations, the Government has not required any other businesses to close – indeed it is important for business to carry on.
Where businesses continue to open, employers should take every possible step to facilitate their employees working from home. Certain jobs require people to travel to their place of work – for instance if they operate machinery, work in construction or manufacturing, or are delivering front line services. If your employees cannot work from home then they can still travel to work, provided they are well and no one in their household is self-isolating. This is consistent with advice from the Chief Medical Officer (CMO).
Employers who have people in their offices or onsite should ensure that employees are able to follow Public Health England guidelines including, where possible, maintaining a 2 metre distance from others, and washing their hands with soap and water often for at least 20 seconds (or using hand sanitiser gel if soap and water is not available).
Business Support General FAQs
The Business Support measures outlined on these pages are designed to protect people’s jobs – but there are other measures in place to support people’s financial security. More information about the Government’s response is available here: https://www.gov.uk/coronavirus. If you are looking for health information and advice, go to the NHS’s coronavirus pages.
Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme
Under the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme, all UK employers with a PAYE scheme that was created and started on or before 28 February 2020, will be able to access support to continue paying part of their employees’ salary for those that would otherwise have been laid off during this crisis. This applies to employees who have been asked to stop working, but who are being kept on the payroll, otherwise described as ‘furloughed workers’.
HMRC will pay employers a grant worth 80% of an employee’s usual wage costs, up to £2,500 a month, plus the associated Employer National Insurance contributions and minimum automatic enrolment employer pension contributions on that subsidised wage. This is to safeguard workers from being made redundant.
The Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will cover the cost of wages backdated to March 1st if applicable and is initially open for 3 months, but will be extended if necessary.
Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme
The new Coronavirus Large Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CLBILS) will provide a government guarantee of 80% to enable banks to make loans of up to £25m to firms with an annual turnover of between £45m and £500m. This will give banks the confidence to lend to many more businesses which are impacted by coronavirus. Facilities backed by a guarantee under CLBILS will be offered at commercial rates of interest.
We expect the scheme to be delivered through commercial lenders. The Government will provide lenders with an 80% guarantee on individual loans for businesses that would be otherwise unable to access the finance they need
Lenders will still be expected to conduct their usual credit risk checks, but this scheme allows them to specifically support business that were viable before the COVID-19 outbreak but are facing significant cash flow difficulties, that would otherwise make their business unviable in the short term.
The new scheme will launch later this month and will support a wide range of businesses to access finance products including short term loans, overdrafts, invoice finance and asset finance.
Businesses would remain responsible for repaying any facility they may takeout.
Covid-19 Corporate Financing Facility
The new Covid-19 Corporate Financing Facility (CCFF) means that the Bank of England will buy short-term debt from larger companies. This will support companies which are fundamentally strong, but have been affected by a short-term funding squeeze. It will also support corporate finance markets overall and ease the supply of credit to all firms. The scheme will be funded by central bank reserves – in line with other Bank of England market operations. It will operate for at least 12 months, and for as long as steps are needed to relieve cash flow pressures on firms that make a material contribution to the UK economy.
Other Sources of Support from Government
This is a difficult time for many businesses and workers – and the response from the Government is unprecedented. We hope you have found the information on this site helpful. In some cases, we know the detail you need is not quite yet available, but we are doing all we can to get up-to-date information to you as soon as possible. We’ve provided a FAQ page to help.
Small Business Grant Funding
The Government is providing additional funding for local authorities to support small businesses that already pay little or no business rates because of small business rate relief (SBRR), rural rate relief (RRR) and tapered relief. This will provide a one-off grant of £10,000 to eligible businesses to help meet their ongoing business costs.
Support for Businesses Paying Tax
All businesses and self-employed people in financial distress, and with outstanding tax liabilities, may be eligible to receive support with their tax affairs through HMRC’s Time To Pay service. These arrangements are agreed on a case-by-case basis and are tailored to individual circumstances and liabilities.
VAT Deferral
The UK government will support businesses by deferring Valued Added Tax (VAT) payments due between 20 March 2020 and 30 June 2020.
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