- Recovery Loan Extension
One rather important thing that I forgot to include in an update last week was the announcement that the Recovery Loan Scheme which was launched in April 2021 has been extended for two years to continue to provide access to up to £2m for businesses recovering from covid and facing the challenges associated with the cost of living crisis.
Here is the announcement
And here is the link to the details of the scheme and how businesses can find a lender
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/recovery-loan-scheme
- Pavement License Guidance Updated
The guidance to businesses regarding pavement licenses has been updated to take into account the new Business and Planning Act Regulations 2022. In a nutshell, what the new regulations do is extend the streamlined process for granting pavement licenses to businesses like café’s restaurant and pubs until 30 September 2023. Until this streamlined process, business pay just £100 to their local authority for a license and the public consultation period is just 7 days. If the local authority does not determine the application before the end of the 7 day period the licence is deemed to have been granted for the shorter of “a year or until 30 September 2023”. The business can then get on and place furniture such as tables and chairs within the area set out in the application.
- Covid Pass
The Government has updated the guidance on the NHS Covid Pass to reflect that children aged 5 to 11 in England can get now get a digital NHS COVID Pass for international travel.
https://www.gov.uk/guidance/nhs-covid-pass
- Attitudes To International Travel
In a great example of providing timely insights and information to industry, DFT has just published the findings of their survey of public attitudes to international travel that was conducted in October 2021. The main findings are:
• 10% of adults said they plan to travel outside of the UK for leisure in the next 3 months
• 53% of UK adults stated they were not planning to travel abroad for leisure at all between October 2021 and January 2021.
I hope that this has helped you with your business planning.
https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/international-travel-public-attitudes-during-covid-19