Coronavirus: A personal message from Chamber CEO Rob Johnston
Hello
I’d like to update you about what the Chamber is doing to help businesses like yours cope with the Coronavirus crisis.
Our toolkit, here, contains a wealth of information on loans, grants and other support. It’s updated several times a day so do check it regularly – things are moving rapidly and we want to ensure you’re up to speed.
In the last 24 hours, we’ve added information on a new package for the self-employed, announced by the Chancellor yesterday, and detailed information on how the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme will work. This will pay 80 per cent of the salaries of staff who are unable to work because of the outbreak.
If you haven’t done so already, we’d appreciate it if you could complete our Coronavirus survey here.
It’s important that we gather intelligence from businesses like yours so we can lobby Government to make the right interventions.
For example, the British Chambers of Commerce, to which we’re affiliated, was pro-active in calling for help for the self-employed and in pressing for the Job Retention Scheme payments to cover employers’ National Insurance and pension contributions as well as wages.
Currently, the British Chambers is asking the banks to speed-up the processing of Business Interruption Loans and its lobbying helped ensure that the big four banks are not demanding security for loans up to £250,000.
Cumbria Chamber recently set up Chamber Connect, a free service to match people unable to work with businesses looking to recruit temporary staff to cover absenteeism. Details here.
Cumbria has had more than its fair shares of crises in recent years, from foot and mouth to floods, but we’ve never experienced anything on this scale.
Rest assured that, however long the Coronavirus crisis goes on, the Chamber will be here to support you and stand up for your interests.
Although our office in Carlisle is closed for the time being, our team is working from home and can be contacted by email at info@cumbriachamber.co.uk
Kind regards
ROB JOHNSTON, MBE, FCIM
Chief Executive, Cumbria Chamber of Commerce
© Cumbria Chamber of Commerce