Cosby Parish Council

Guidance for businesses is available on our website, where you can also download social distancing posters to display in your premises if needed.

There is additional advice below about changes to venue check-in, Legionnaire's disease, reporting a Covid outbreak, and guidance from the Fire Service.

New venue check-in regulations

The way Test and Trace collects information from venues is changing.

All staff, customers and visitors will need to check-in when entering the premises, which can be done quickly and easily with the NHS Covid-19 app. If they do not have the app, they can leave their contact details.

More information is available on the following fact sheets:

New Venue Alerts Process: A Guide For Businesses

Hospitality Fact Sheet Venue Check-In Regulations

Check your water supply to avoid risk of Legionnaire's Disease

If your business is preparing to reopen after lockdown, vital safety checks are needed to avoid increasing the risk of Legionnaires' disease.

With hot and cold water systems out of action for several weeks, the chances of bacteria forming which can cause Legionnaires' disease – a potentially fatal type of pneumonia – are much greater when businesses close for long periods.

Advice includes flushing cold water systems with fresh mains water as well as increasing the temperature of hot water systems to above 60°C.

Guidance for businesses has been published by the Chartered Institute for Environmental Health on its website.

Reporting Coronavirus cases and outbreaks

If there is an outbreak of Covid-19 within your workplace or business, it must be reported.

Please notify Public Health England on 0344 225 4524 as soon as possible. In addition you can also notify us by emailing our Environmental Health team or calling our Customer Services team on 0116 275 0555.

Advice from the Fire Service for businesses re-opening

The Leicestershire Fire and Rescue Service has published advice to help local businesses prepare for reopening. This includes guidance to ensure premises are safe, plus the use of marquees which many venues might be using for the first time.

Covid-19 fire safety video

Marquee fire safety video

Further marquee fire safety advice

Latest news for local businesses

Business Support Grant Funding Update

We have continued to administer grants on behalf of the government to support businesses through multiple schemes including:

• Additional Restrictions Grant - 28 Day Scheme
• Restart Grants - further details TBC by the Council
• Local Restrictions Support Grant - payments/applications for the period 16 February 2021 through to 31 March 2021 can still be applied for

Other useful information:

• The Expanded Retail Discount 2020/21 will be extended for three months for eligible properties, at 100% relief, uncapped, for the period 01 April 2021 to 30 June 2021.
• From 01 July 2021 to 31 March 2022 the Expanded Retail Discount will apply at 66% relief for eligible properties in the scheme, with a cash cap of £2m for businesses that were required to close as of 05 January 2021, and up to £105,000 for business permitted to open at that date.
• The Nursery Discount 2020/2021 will be extended for three months, at 100%, uncapped, for the period 01 April 2021 to 30 June 2021.
• From 01 July 2021 to 31 March 2022 the Nursery Discount would apply at 66% relief for eligible properties, with a cash cap of £105,000.
• For the Expanded Retail Discount 2021/22 and Nursery Discount 2021/22, businesses may choose to opt-out of support by providing billing authorities notification of their request to refuse support, per eligible hereditament.

Save money on energy costs with low carbon grants offer

The Green BELLE project supports small and medium-sized businesses in Leicester and Leicestershire to increase their energy efficiency, reduce their energy costs and lower their carbon emissions.

Over 100 businesses have already benefitted from low carbon funding totalling more than £550,000, and there's still £1million up for grabs.

Grants of £1,000 to £7,000 are available to help cover the costs of low carbon, energy-efficient improvements to business premises. Find out more by visiting the Green BELLE website.

Supporting local businesses to install low carbon, energy efficient measures is just one of the actions resulting from the Council's Climate Change Strategy, which plans to become carbon neutral by 2050.

Meet our new Business, Work and Skills Coordinator

Hi, my name is Jo Holland, your new Business, Work and Skills Coordinator for Blaby District Council. I am a former Business Improvement District Manager where I managed a large BID town throughout the first and second lockdown, and saw first-hand the impact the pandemic had on businesses

Over the coming weeks I will be aiming to meet and get to know as many of you as possible. I want to find out how best the Business Hub can support you. I have lots of ideas and plans, but need your feedback first! There are opportunities to do things differently, and to take some positives from the new ways we have all been working and living.

On behalf of the team, I would like to thank everyone who participated in our recent survey. These surveys give us an indication of what support you have already accessed, what you still need and areas where we need to improve, in terms of sharing or signposting to helpful information. There were a couple of key themes that came out around digital support and the impact on your mental health. We are currently pulling all the feedback together and will be using this to inform our future plans.

We want our district to be vibrant and to thrive, from looking at a range of solutions for empty units to making improvements to the street scene. I'm local, and biased, but I believe that Blaby District is a wonderful place to live, work and have fun.

If you would like to contact me directly please do so at Joanne.Holland@blaby.gov.uk.

Digital Growth Programme - April schedule

The Digital Growth Programme April workshop and webinar schedule is now live and taking bookings as follows:

Webinars
20 April | Diving deeper into WordPress
27 April | How to grow your Email Marketing list
28 April | Getting started with Social Media Marketing tools

Action Planning Workshops
14 April | Boosting your LinkedIn Business Account
16 April | Optimising your WordPress Website
19 April | Getting started with Email Marketing
21 April | Getting started with Google Tag Manager
22 April | Getting started with telling your business story through imagery
30 April | Getting started with Paid Digital Advertising

Access to all events through the programme is fully funded and open to eligible businesses across Leicester and Leicestershire. Visit the Digital Growth Programme website to book your place.

EU Exit Support for Businesses

The Business Gateway Growth Hub are providing a series of webinars designed to help your business post-Brexit:

13 April | Understanding Rules of Origin within the context of the UK-EU Trade and Cooperation Agreement

27 April | Our new regulatory landscape from 1st January 2021, considerations for UK companies

11 May | Overcoming the new complexities of B2C sales into the EU

25 May | What UK service companies need to do to optimally adjust to the new way of trading with the EU

You can find out more and book onto each webinar by clicking on the appropriate link.

Blaby Business Hub

Our Business Hub is on hand to offer dedicated help and support to local firms during the crisis and as we progress out of it.

Our team can help with resources and information on a range of issues to help your business, and together with local partners, we will continue to review the support we can offer. If you would like to discuss the support available, including Covid secure working, please get in touch with us by completing the form on the Business Hub webpage.

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