Information for businesses

Business grants

Most grants are now closed. For information on any current grants available, please visit our business grants page.

Local Business Resilience and Recovery Scheme

New Anglia Growth Hub have announced a Business Resilience and Recovery Scheme. This funding scheme will help to qualify businesses through the pandemic and into economic recovery. You can find out more on the New Anglia Growth Hub website.

Go Digital Grant

COVID-19 restrictions have left many businesses facing the challenge of reaching their customers remotely by utilising digital services in new ways. 

The ‘Go Digital’ scheme is a free business support programme designed to help your business do more with digital.

Find out more on our Go Digital Grant page.

Retail Discount and Nursery Discount

Details of all the available reductions are available on our business rates discounts, reliefs and exemptions page.

You can check your My Revenues account to see if you have a business rates holiday applied to your bill.

Closures

Any businesses that remained closed were allowed to open following the relaxation of restrictions on July 19. For the latest information about any restrictions, please visit GOV.UK - Coronavirus - page.

Re-opening

This business and tourism toolkit has been prepared by the Norfolk Resilience Forum (Norfolk Public Health) to provide you with useful information and advice as you re-open.

If you don't have access to printing facilities and need to have a copy printed, or materials from within the toolkit (posters/leaflets) printed, you can request these, free of charge, by contacting  print.room@west-norfolk.gov.uk. Please state how many copies you need, and which pages. Where possible we'll ask you to collect the materials from our print facility.

There are links within the document to additional resources on the Norfolk.gov.uk website, including translated documents, which you may find useful.

Food business latest information

Food businesses were allowed to re-open inside from May 17 as long as they operate in a Covid-secure manner. For more information on the regulations, please visit the GOV.UK - what you can and cannot do - page. 

Advice and help available locally

Norfolk businesses who have been affected by coronavirus should seek advice from the New Anglia Growth Hub. Their qualified business advisers are offering free support and advice and can help you to access the support measures put in place by Government.

You can contact them by emailing growthhub@newanglia.co.uk or telephoning 0300 333 6536, Monday – Friday between the hours of 9am - 5pm. Or you can use their contact form.

Government guidance

The Government has supplied a series of resources to keep employers up to date on the latest developments and advice on protecting themselves and their employees.

Read the latest government advice for businesses and for self-employed people.

Business security

You may wish to review your business security. If you have goods that are currently in short supply, it could leave your business vulnerable to break-ins. The Police have some guidance on the steps you can take to help. View their Coronavirus business security leaflet. 

From 15 December, certain venues and events will be required by law to check that all visitors aged 18 years or over are fully vaccinated (currently a full course of vaccination without the need for a booster, but this will be kept under review), have proof of a negative test in the last 48 hours, or that they have an exemption.

This means that those aged 18 years or over must show their NHS COVID Pass, or an alternative proof of a negative test result, such as an NHS Test and Trace email or text proof, to gain entry into these venues.

A NHS COVID Pass can be obtained through:

• the NHS App
• NHS.UK
• A letter that you can obtain on NHS.UK or by calling 119

For more information, please refer to the 'Required use of the NHS COVID Pass' guidelines on gov.uk

The use of the NHS COVID Pass is required as a condition of entry into the following places:

• nightclubs, dance halls and discotheques;
• other late night dance venues. These are any other venues that are:
• open between 1am and 5am;
• serve alcohol during this time;
• have a dance floor (or designated space for dancing); and
• provide music, whether live or recorded, for dancing.
• indoor events with 500 or more unseated attendees, where those attendees are likely to stand or move around for all or part of the event, such as music venues with standing audiences or large receptions;
• outdoor events with 4,000 or more unseated attendees, where those attendees are likely to stand or move around for all or part of the event, such as outdoor festivals; and
• any events with 10,000 or more attendees indoor or outdoor, such as large sports and music events

There are some settings that will be exempt from requirements to use the NHS COVID Pass including communal worship, wedding ceremonies, funerals and other commemorative events, protests, and mass participation sporting events.

Find out more about using the NHS Covid Pass by clicking here.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected businesses across the economy. It's caused many to cease trading for several months. While others have had to significantly modify their operations.

As the economy starts to re-open, the Government has announced a relaxation to planning and licensing laws through the Business and Planning Act 2020. This will help the hospitality industry recover from the coronavirus lockdown by removing short-term obstacles that could get in their way.

As lockdown restrictions are lifted, the Business and Planning Act 2020 makes it easier for premises serving food and drink (such as bars, restaurants and pubs) to seat and serve customers outdoors through temporary changes to planning procedures and alcohol licensing. This will help while social distancing guidelines remain in place.

You can apply for a pavement licence to allow you to place chairs and tables on the highway outside your premises. Find out more on our Pavement licence page.

Businesses have a legal responsibility to keep employers and visitors safe. They must follow the Government advice when operating.

If you've seen a business who isn't adhering to the COVID-secure guidelines, find out how to report this on our Report a breach of COVID-19 safety rules page.

Self-Employment Income Support Scheme

Through the pandemic the Government introduced a Self-Employment Income Support Scheme. It pays self-employed people who have been adversely affected by the pandemic a taxable grant of 80% of their average monthly profits over the last three years up to £2,500 a month. See GOV.UK - SEISS for further information

If you can’t work because you’ve had symptoms of COVID-19 or have self isolated, you can apply for:

• Universal Credit (UC) (GOV.UK)
• new style Employment and Support Allowance (GOV.UK)

GOV.UK has information about:

• support with tax that's due

Advice for tradespeople

Work carried out in people’s homes, for example by tradespeople carrying out repairs and maintenance, can continue, provided that the tradesperson is well and has no symptoms.

No work should be carried out in any household which is isolating or where an individual is being shielded, unless it is to remedy a direct risk to the safety of the household, such as emergency plumbing or repairs, and where the tradesperson is willing to do so. In such cases, Public Health England can provide advice to tradespeople and households.

No work should be carried out by a tradesperson who has coronavirus symptoms, however mild.

Support available

The HMRC have introduced:

• a Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme on GOV.UK
• support with paying sick pay for staff who've been off work because of COVID-19, if you have fewer than 250 employees 

As part of the summer economic update on the 8 July the Government also announced the following measures:

• job retention bonus - to help firms keep on furloughed workers, UK Employers will receive a one-off bonus of £1,000 for each furloughed employee who is still employed as of 31 January 2021
• kickstart Scheme - a new £2 billion scheme will be launched to create hundreds of thousands of new, fully subsidised jobs for young people across the country. Those aged 16-24, claiming Universal Credit and at risk of long-term unemployment, will be eligible
• employment and support schemes - a total of £1.6 billion will be invested in scaling up employment support schemes, training and apprenticeships to help people looking for a job
• creating jobs - the plan will also create tens of thousands of jobs through bringing forward work on £8.8 billion of new infrastructure, decarbonisation and maintenance projects. In addition, £5.8 billion will be spent on shovel-ready construction projects to get Britain building

You can find out more on the GOV.UK website.

GOV.UK information

GOV.UK has information about support for businesses, including:

• deferring VAT payments
• deferring self assessment income tax payments
• applying for more time to file your company's accounts with Companies House
• the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme ('furloughing' workers)
• paying sick pay to employees
• what you can do if you can't pay your tax bill on time

Use the GOV.UK coronavirus business support finder to find out what support your business is eligible for.

Summer economic update

On 8 July the Chancellor outlined a package of measures to:

• support jobs in every part of the country
• give businesses the confidence to retain and hire
• provide people with the tools they need to get better jobs

The measures include:

• job retention bonus - to help firms keep on furloughed workers, UK Employers will receive a one-off bonus of £1,000 for each furloughed employee who is still employed as of 31 January 2021
• kickstart Scheme - a new £2 billion scheme will be launched to create hundreds of thousands of new, fully subsidised jobs for young people across the country. Those aged 16-24, claiming Universal Credit and at risk of long-term unemployment, will be eligible
• employment and support schemes - a total of £1.6 billion will be invested in scaling up employment support schemes, training and apprenticeships to help people looking for a job
• creating jobs - the plan will also create tens of thousands of jobs through bringing forward work on £8.8 billion of new infrastructure, decarbonisation and maintenance projects. In addition, £5.8 billion will be spent on shovel-ready construction projects to get Britain building
• VAT - the rate of VAT applied on most tourism and hospitality-related activities will be cut from 20% to 5%

You can find out more on the GOV.UK website.

For advice on how to keep both yourself and your passengers safe, please visit our Taxi update - COVID-19 page.

We advise that you conduct a risk assessment before you apply for a TEN. You can find out more on our Temporary Event Notices during COVID-19 page.

Businesses and those who manage public venues are in a position to influence the actions of other people inside the premises. They should take measures to promote these actions wherever possible.

NHS Test and Trace is now fully operational in England. Having a test to detect current infection is now available to anyone in Norfolk who has symptoms. All tests are free of charge. The Test and Trace business toolkit document helps guide you on what to do if you have a customer or staff member test positive for COVID-19.

If you're a tourism business, please see our flowchart document to help guide you if a guest has suspected coronavirus.

QR codes

From 24 September 2020 it became a legal requirement for certain business premises to have a QR code poster displayed at their venue. Businesses that don't comply are at risk of a fine. Find out more about the Test and Trace system, and how to get a QR code, on our guidance for businesses page.