Appointment of Tourism Industry Council (TIC) Working Group Chairs
DCMS has established four Working Groups to support the delivery of the Tourism Recovery Plan (TRP) and its objectives. The Chairs of these Groups are:
- Accessibility Working Group Chair: Kate Nicholls, CEO of UKHospitality
- Sustainability Working Group Chair: Patricia Yates, CEO of VisitBritain
- International Competitiveness and Demand Working Group Chair: Joss Croft, CEO of UKInbound
- Events Industry Working Group (The Events Industry Board): Michael Hirst, Executive Committee Member, Business Visits & Events Partnership
North East Policy Sprint Update and Next Steps
DCMS has been conducting a Policy Sprint, looking at how national government, local government, regional partners and the private sector can work together to support the visitor economy at a regional level (with the North East as a case study). A key focus point of the Policy Sprint was a Workshop, which took place in the North East last week.
DCMS are now continuing with Stage 2 of the Sprint, the Ideas Generation Phase. In short, this will involve refining the proposals developed at the Workshop last week ahead of the next Inter-Ministerial Group on the Visitor Economy in May. The draft recommendations will be presented to the Tourism Industry Council in April.
UKHSA Guidance Publication
As trailed on 13 March, the long-term public health guidance has now been updated and published by UKHSA. Please find the links to all the guidance below.
- Living safely with respiratory infections, including COVID-19.
- Reducing the spread of respiratory infections, including COVID-19, in the workplace.
- People with symptoms of a respiratory infection including COVID-19 (the advice for people with a positive COVID-19 LFD test result and their close contacts was ultimately merged into this).
The two DCMS Working Safely guidance pieces (i) Events & Attractions and ii) Hotels & Accommodation have now been unpublished from Gov.uk. Readers trying to open a page will be automatically redirected to the new UKHSA “principles for employers” page.
Update on the Installation of EV Charge Ports
The Office for Zero Emission Vehicles champions the take-up of electric vehicles and supports the development of a chargepoint infrastructure across the UK. The accommodation and tourism sector can play a key role in this. The Government is now offering help to businesses to install charge points.
The Government is here to help with the upfront costs. For a limited time, we will be providing grants of up to £350 per chargepoint socket installed. These will cover up to 75% of the cost of buying and installing a chargepoint. A grant is available for each parking space provided with a chargepoint socket, with every business able to claim up to 40 grants.
This grant is available for B&B’s, campsites, small hotels, and any other accommodation business with less than 250 employees and to charities. All other businesses can also access the workplace charging scheme, but only for providing charge points for their staff or fleets. To apply, accommodation businesses will need to be registered with Companies House, have a VAT number, or have a HMRC (HM Revenue and Customs) registration letter.
How can businesses access the grants? The grant is provided using our Workplace Charging Scheme. To access it, businesses should:
- Read the Workplace Charging Scheme: guidance for charities and small accommodation businesses – GOV.UK (www.gov.uk) as this contains most information businesses will need.
- Explore their options and prepare.
- Talk to EV chargepoint installers to get options and quotes.
- Go here to find installers in your area.