Covid-19 – support available to business, especially co-ops

It’s now a little over seven weeks since the UK Lockdown was announced, in an effort to control the spread of COVID-19. Things have changed – some a little, some a lot – and so here’s our latest round up of the guidance, support and information out there. We are continuing to work remotely and are fully available to you – please email info@coopfinance.coop or phone 0117 916 6750 if you have questions or concerns that we might be able to help with.

General Business Information

The latest Government advice for business is here

The Coronavirus Job Retention – or furlough – Scheme has been extended. Nothing will change until the end of July, with employers being expected to ‘“share with the government the cost of paying salaries,” from August through to October

The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme (CBILS) is now available through participating lenders. Start your search at the British Business Bank webpage

The Bounce Back Loan Scheme (BBLS) provides financial support to businesses across the UK that are losing revenue, and seeing their cashflow disrupted, as a result of the COVID-19 outbreak and that can benefit from £50,000 or less in finance.

The team at Good Finance are providing a COVID-19 Resource Hub and also have a useful ‘Is Social Investment Right For Us?‘ wizard on their website, if you are considering your funding options at the moment

The Social Investment Business are providing a resilience and Recovery Loan Fund. The twenty-minute application and eligibility checker is here

Support for Co-operatives

Co-operatives UK dedicated Coronavirus webpage covers government support, HR advice, webinars of interest and more – it’s regularly updated.

Five episodes of their More than A Shop podcast are now available here

The Co-operatives College has moved it’s Youth Series online and is working to get their other resources online as fast as possible

We remain available to support our clients and to discuss new support – please do get in touch.

Support for Community Businesses

Power to Change have launched up to £12 million of emergency support to help community business in England during the coronavirus crisis. They have also supported Stir To Action, enabling them to provide their New Economy workshops free of charge – all are now fully booked but you can sign up to a waiting list here

Plunkett Foundation have a dedicated COVID-19 webpage and are also offering one to one support for community businesses across the UK in partnership with The Co-operative. They are also running weekly peer to peer connections sessions for Community Pubs (Tuesdays, 4pm) and Community Shops (Wednesdays, 6.30pm)

The More Than A Pub programme been re-focused to support the needs of trading community pub businesses in England, alongside those community pub groups who have already received support from the programme.

If you would like to support and shop at Community Business at this time check the Power To Change map here

Funders and lenders are all active and present on social media, and they – and we – want to support you. Find your funders web pages and channels, connect with organisations like yours to get support and advice from your peers. Please continue to contact us with any questions. We are committed to supporting you, our clients through this, and to there being a healthy sector at the end of it.

We can get through this, together.