Understanding What Government Support is Available for Your Business in the Economic Downturn

The Government has launched a £22bn package of schemes to help UK business overcome current financial and economic challenges now and to help them be stronger when the economic upturn arrives. This page outlines what help is available for Canterbury district businesses and how you can access these.


GENERAL SUPPORT FOR BUSINESS

Guide - 'Real Help for Business Now'

This is free support package seeks to address the cash flow, credit and capital needs of small businesses and provides practical advice and information for saving your business money. It also has tips on saving money, improving your productivity, assisting you with your tax bill, or save money by reducing waste and saving energy. There is a health check where you can identify problems early on as well as helping you plan for the difficult year ahead with advice on managing restructures, major change to dealing with redundancy.


ACCESS TO FINANCE

The Government's 'Real Help With Finance' is a package of financial measures designed to address the cash flow, credit and investment needs of viable small and medium businesses. These funds are administered by Regional Development Agencies (RDAs) and provide loans in cases where all commercial lending options have been exhausted. These initiatives will supplement existing government help already available through Business Link Kent.

The support package consists of loan guarantees and a new Enterprise Fund aimed at helping companies struggling to access finance for working capital and investment.

The Government measures include:

• A £10bn Working Capital Scheme, securing up to £20bn of short term bank lending to companies. The purpose of this scheme is to provide an incentive to banks not to reduce or withdraw working capital lines to sound, creditworthy UK companies. The guarantees will release capital held by the banks against the portfolios on which the Government assumes risk. There is also a guarantee scheme to support a £1bn facility for smaller exporters to access short-term working capital;
   
• An Enterprise Finance Guarantee Scheme, securing up to £1.3bn of additional bank loans to small firms. This will enable you to secure loans of between £1,000 and £1m through the government guarantee;
   
• A £75m Capital for Enterprise Fund (£50m from Government augmented by £25m from the banks) to invest in small businesses, which need equity. This aims to invest in businesses that have exhausted traditional sources of finance but are viable in the longer-term.

Businesses will be able to access information on this support and undertake an initial diagnosis of eligibility at www.businesslink.gov.uk/realhelp/finance  or by calling Business Link on 0845 600 9 006.


RESOURCE EFFICIENCY

The Department for the Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) and Deaprtment of Energy and Climate Change have launched a marketing campaign designed to help businesses save money by being more resource efficient.

It focuses on ten no/low cost tips to save water, energy and waste which are available at www.businesslink.gov.uk/savingmoney

SUPPORT FOR BUSINESSES IN DIFFICULTY

Business Link Kent 

In this difficult economic period, it is inevitable many firms will experience problems of one kind or another. Business Link Kent can provide support in a number of ways including:

Assessing the health of your business
Use our interactive tool to assess how well your business is currently performing.

Avoiding insolvency
Keep an eye on cashflow to help you avoid insolvency and do not allow debts to exceed assets.

Recovering debt through court
Steps to take before legal action, using solicitors, debt recovery agents and pursuing a legal claim.

Dealing with insolvency and bankruptcy
What you need to know about insolvency, bankruptcy and receivership.

Finding alternatives to bankruptcy
An interactive tool to help you investigate alternatives to declaring yourself bankrupt.


HELP FOR SPECIFIC SECTORS

Tourism
Tourism South East has published Winning in Recession - a Guide for the Tourism Sector', which is now available to view or download.

Car Industry
The Government have announced new loan guarantees for car manufacturers and their suppliers - which had been having difficulty borrowing from banks and financial markets. Further support is directed towards new investment in low-carbon technologies.  This remains at an early stage in that these proposals need to be approved by the European Commission.

SKILLS AND TRAINING

Job Centre Plus

The Government are seeking to get people into approximately half a million jobs available in the UK, particularly those that have been unemployed for over 6 months. It has launched a new package of intensive support, which includes a £500 million Employers' Golden Hellos initiative.

Under the plan, which comes into force in April, job centre advisers will be able to offer incentives of up to £1,000 for employers to recruit a long-term unemployed worker with a further £1,500 per person made available for training that person.

If you are interested in this project, more information is available via Job Centre Plus.


BUSINESS RATES

Over half of small businesses miss out on business rates relief because either they don't know about it or they don't realise that they are eligible. These businesses could be up to £1,100 better off per year if they take the rate relief.  Full details of business rates relief can be found at the web links at the side of this page.

Also a senior MP has introduced a Private Members Bill* (PMB) that would make it automatic for qualifying businesses to get Small Business Rate Relief. More details available soon.


REGIONAL SUPPORT

South East England Economy - A joint response to changing economic circumstances

The South East England Development Agency (SEEDA) has produced a guide to how it is responding to the economic downturn. This comprises a number of policy measures to support business in the region and explains why the southeast is well positioned to benefit from an economic upturn. The document is available to download from the downloads box to the right of this page.


Bridging Mezzanine Debt Fund/Transition Loan Fund

As a direct response to business need resulting from the credit crunch, SEEDA, working with Finance South East, has established the £3m Bridging Mezzanine Debt Fund (BMDF). Key elements of the BMDF are: -

· Unsecured loan up to £148,000;
· Up to one year term, which can be extended on request;
· No capital repayments or interest payments until maturity;
· Rolled up interest so payment is at maturity;
· No notice to repay loan as other funding becomes available.

These elements ensure that the fund does not compete with the commercial sector whilst also being attractive to viable businesses because of the 'rolled up' interest and unsecured status of the Funding.

Further information is on BMDF is available through Business Link on contact details above, or Finance South East (01276 608510 or www.financesoutheast.com ).