David Draffan Corvid19 Blog no. 4

Plymouth City Council Economic Development

David Draffan Service Director Economic Development

Corvid19 Blog

No 4 - Friday 27/3/2020

Hi Everyone,

My name is David Draffan and I am the Service Director at Plymouth City Council with responsibility for Economic. As a department we have been wondering how to get our key messages out. It occurred to me that a more informal, human blog might be useful, in addition to our normal methods, so that I can perhaps reach a different audience; but also so that people can understand the work that is going on behind the scenes. I intend this to be regular and short rather than longwinded given the massive amount of communication currently.

The last 24 hours have been fairly manic as we have been focusing on getting the government’s small loans scheme up and running. The system we have in place isn’t perfect but it is the fastest way we could think of to get the money into the hands of those people that need it. I will try and explain what will happen now in a bit more detail below. I know that most Councils around the Country haven’t mobilised yet.

2 things have become very apparent to me over the last few days. Firstly, the many tales of real hardship affecting almost every single business. These are personal and often very distressing. We really feel your pain and the staff engaging with you are very personally affected by your stories, which in turn motivate them to try and do more. Secondly the amazing levels of community responses and offers of kindness just massively outweigh any selfish responses. Quite extraordinary.

However it is also clear to me that if this current situation lasts for any length of time the impact will be devastating. We have done detailed economic modelling on various scenarios across all our sectors which have been shared with the LEP and central government.

Important things

The Government’s small loans scheme administered by PCC is now up and running and all the information can be found here:

https://www.visitplymouth.co.uk/invest/business-support/covid-19/business-grants

The Government has today announced a scheme for the self – employed: https://www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-a-grant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme

A number of gaps in the Governments approach to the current business support offer have been highlighted to us this week. Working with the Chamber, FSB and PMG we are lobbying direct to the chancellor, MPs and LGA. If you have examples of how the current support doesn’t meet your business need please let us know. Evidence not anecdotes. TY.

We are still looking for PPE for the care community – Can you help? Email me. Thank you Princess Yachts for your contribution this week.

Plymouth City Council Emergency Planning.

I am privileged to get a daily overview of all the work the Council is doing across hundreds of individual services which if I am honest can be a little scary. I have always been proud of, and at home around, the values that I have found in public service - despite Council’s understandably always getting stick. But I have to say at the moment there are small acts of heroism everywhere I look. Did you know for example the Council is, with partners, getting all homeless people off the streets by Friday to keep them safe? The Council issued a statement giving a sense of the breadth of the work that is currently going on that is worth a read. https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/newsroom/plymouthnews/covid19whatwearedoingsupportplymouth

Small Business Grants - https://www.visitplymouth.co.uk/invest/business-support/covid-19/business-grants

There has obviously been a lot of interest in the grants administered by the Council at this time. We have got our scheme up and running ahead of any other local authority as far as I am aware and we will certainly get the money out fastest. However the rates system is geared up to collect money and not pay it out and as a result the system is imperfect. The critical advice is for people to wait until Monday or Tuesday next week before contacting us with general enquiries. If you are eligible a letter has been sent to your business registered premises. A phone line number will be released on Tuesday for anyone who has not received a letter, can’t access it, or thinks they should have got one. Waiting wont impact on how fast you’re paid. We want to try and get everyone paid in 2 weeks. If everyone hits the system tomorrow it will break for everyone. That said you know where I am so feel free to drop me a line.

Love Fish and Support your local Economy!   - www.call4fish.com

Remember to support local the local fishing industry and but direct from the quayside – No queues. 500 people have already registered which is just amazing!!!!

Business Contacts

We are now directly supporting nearly 244 business directly up 63 from yesterday. The average size of business less than 20 and the general nature of the enquiry was the immediate hardship to the business. But of course behind each business is a human story. There is a small dedicated team servicing these calls and emails but we in the process of more than doubling this resource so we can listen, help and advise. We are also considering introducing a 7 day operation, although most of us are already doing so.

Gaps in Business Support Package

As I mentioned above we are getting lots of feedback about gaps in the current support package and are raising these direct to government.

So far we have feedback that:

• The furloughed employee scheme is taking too long to implement
• The small business loans aren’t flowing and the Banks are asking quite a lot
• Mid-sized businesses (larger businesses in Plymouth) are covered by the loans scheme at all
• The small grants scheme doesn’t pick up businesses whose rent and rates are combined

Please let me know if we are missing anything.

Business Organisations

We have established a weekly call with the Chamber, FSB and Plymouth Manufacturers Group chaired by Cllr Tudor Evans to ensure that we hear the business voice and then respond locally and nationally. Thanks Stuart Elford, Jonathan Keable and Steve Gerry – Plymouth are lucky to have you.

Growth Hub

Did you know we have a dedicated business support service in Devon and you can speak to a trained business advisor for free? https://www.heartofswgrowthhub.co.uk/covid-19-guidance-for-business/

Share widely

Please do share this blog widely and not via the usual channels as it’s important we get the message of support and solidarity to Plymouth businesses not connected in the usual way.

Feedback

If this blog is useful let me know and if it is simply more noise in the system I won’t be the slightest bit offended! I will try and do updates a few times a week as anything changes. I hope you get some small comfort from that fact that you are not alone. There is a dedicated groups of people committed to ensuring your survival and will stop at nothing to help.

Contact

My mobile number is 07919226965 and my email is [email protected] Please text or email any time if you think I can help – I’m a night owl and will most likely be sitting with the laptop at the kitchen table.

BE POSITIVE

Just 3 weeks ago we published this amazing video to excite people about the scale of our economic agenda in the City. Whilst hard to be positive now the fundamentals of Plymouth are strong. Watch and try and remember this will pass soon enough.

https://www.bing.com/videos/search?q=plymouth+city+council+driving+growth+video+2020&docid=608003614484136643&mid=80FF18A0161527FD3BFA80FF18A0161527FD3BFA&view=detail&FORM=VIRE

Thanks all.

David