(a)

urged everyone to do all that they could to keep the virus from spreading, not just for the sake of the city but also for family and friends who were at risk if they caught this hideous virus and to follow the guidance stay at home, wash hands regularly, wear a face mask and keep social distance;

(b)

a letter had been written to the Chancellor highlighting -

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that whilst the Treasury’s latest announcement on the business support package to accompany this third lockdown was welcomed, the Council had some serious concerns about the lack of a long term strategy; whilst billions of pounds of support for businesses had been welcomed this had been last minute, piecemeal, short-term and retrospective; the Council was currently administering around 10 different grant and support schemes to various services with the guidance changing with each new announcement;

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together with the British Chamber of Commerce and Federation of Small Businesses, the Council was calling on the Government to produce a National Business Continuity Strategy; a plan that provided  businesses with a route map up to the end of 2021 and beyond; the short-term and temporary protections were making economic recovery far more difficult, businesses needed certainty to be able to plan and invest;

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the Office for Budgetary Responsibility predicted that the UK economy would have shrunk by 11.3% in 2020; this would be the biggest decline in 300 years; unemployment was expected to peak at 9.7%; that would mean that the economic damage from Covid far outweighed the financial crash in 2008 and the scale and complexity of the challenge facing the Government this time was far greater but there was still no clear, long term plan;

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Plymouth had been identified as one of the top 10 best cities to start a business, but small businesses and the self-employed had been the hardest hit during the pandemic; these entrepreneurs were the lifeblood of Plymouth’s economy; these gaps needed to be urgently addressed and support put in place for those who were currently deemed ineligible;

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the Council was working with businesses, business groups and academia to deliver the city’s economic recovery plan, Resurgam;

(c)

update on business grants and new grants (up to 4 January 2021) -

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Plymouth had received £57.5m of grant funding from Government and the Council had paid out £51.3m of that funding since the start of the pandemic;

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since April the Council has paid 6,699 individual business grant payments;

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£54.2m of discretionary funding had been paid to 818 businesses;

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1,458 business had been paid a total of £2.265m in grants for the November 2020 lockdown;

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100 Plymouth ‘wet pubs’ had received £1000 one off Christmas support payment grant;

(d)

5 January 2021 (national lockdown) the Council was currently expecting guidance from the Government on the latest grant schemes; the Council had been advised that there would be three schemes available -

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grants to businesses who had been mandated to close;

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grants to retail, leisure and hospitality businesses with a rateable value;

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a top up to the existing discretionary grant scheme;

(e)

as soon as Government guidance had been received, the Council would launch the schemes and would ensure that these grants were in business accounts as soon as possible.