Information and guidance
We would like to reassure the businesses we work with, ranging from child minders to major national companies that we will seek to find flexible solutions to help them continue to deliver services for our users.
Recent Government guidance can be found here
This guidance confirms that the government is fully committed to supporting our suppliers and our approach that we will be taking at least until June. To qualify for support businesses will need to work with us on a transparent open book basis and we would just ask you to be open and honest about your current situation, so that we prioritise our support for our suppliers. We will continue to review the situation and update you.
We are taking the following practical steps to help businesses in need of our assistance:
1. Where a business faces loss of income, we will discuss with them the available options if we continue to pay for the services they are contracted to provide. If we make payments for these services, we will work with these businesses, and where appropriate, look for support to redeploy their resources or personnel to support the Somerset community. We recognise that some businesses may not be able to operate as normal due to workforce or supply issues, and we will work to support them.
2. We may need to ask businesses to provide additional resources and in some cases businesses may incur additional costs. Again we will seek to agree a solution which takes account of need and cost in a balanced way.
3. Payment will be made as promptly as possible.
o We will look at all payment options on a case by case basis to support business sustainability.
o We will work flexibly with providers occupying buildings which we own
4. We will be directing businesses we work with to the Government’s Coronavirus emergency financial support packages. We would ask you to be patient as these are developing on a daily basis. Any businesses in need of advice and support can visit the Local Growth Hub website at Heart of the South West Growth Hub.
If any of our business suppliers are encountering difficulties due to Coronavirus we would encourage them to contact us to discuss how we can best assist you.