David Draffan Covid19 Blog no 6

Plymouth City Council Economic Development

David Draffan Service Director Economic Development

Covid 19 Blog

No 6 - Saturday 4/4/2020

Hi Everyone,

My name is David Draffan and I am the Service Director at Plymouth City Council with responsibility for Economic Development . 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.

So at the end of our second week of lockdown and we have all been adapting to a different way of working. There have been some real lows and some amusing highs – I have heard some alarming stories about Zoom that I cannot repeat. What defined my 2 weeks was the way in which, by and large, everyone pulled together for the collective. I am really grateful for the way the Council staff behaved and the way the businesses behaved.

However on Thursday and Friday I did receive a small number of disappointing stories about PCC staff being abused on the phone lines. Just to say I will simply NOT accept this and you will be sent to the back of the queue with no questions asked. Thankfully this is rare.

The other important issue for me last week was the wellbeing of people. It’s really obvious that the social isolation of working at home can be really damaging for some people. We will continue to work really hard on this.

Finally from a disease perspective, based on the briefings I am party to, I very much fear that things are going to get quite a bit worse for a few weeks in Plymouth before they get better. I know it’s repetitive but please do stay at home and or observe social distancing.

Important things

New announcements – The government yesterday made a couple of important announcements about the expansion of the business loans scheme and issued new expanded guidance regarding rates relief for retail, leisure and hospitality businesses – we are reviewing what this means for Plymouth businesses and will update on Monday.

Lobbying: Next week we plan to embark on a major piece of work to map the gaps in the current business support provision and communicate this on a regional basis to government. We will also be undertaking a national campaign next week to lobby for the Fishing industry so boats can be treated like small businesses.

PPE: We have had a brilliant response to our request for PPE but we still need more (with the exception of sanitiser). If you can help please drop me a line.

Lab Space: We are also interested if there is any available lab space that can be used for testing. We are approaching those direct but drop me a line if you think you can help.

Plymouth City Council Emergency Planning

The Council has been quite focussed in the last few days on supporting the preparation of the health and care system this week for the additional load in the coming weeks. My team have been involved in identifying sites for temporary additional care facilities (GP facilities and Hospital beds) and a mobile testing facility. More announcements to follow next week.

We have now 78% of the Council staff working from home with the remainder focussed on adult care, street services and community services. Our binmen/women are receiving brilliant compliments – for the first time! – but our staff mending the roads are getting abuse. Government has been clear that building sites can/should stay open with a safe method of work and what better time to mend the roads. Please give these teams a thumbs up.

We have seen our universal credit claims jump in a week from 60 to 600 evidencing the hardship in the system. We also hear DWP is creaking with capacity and we will be making this point to government next week.

We have also been focussed on Operation Shield – shielding the elderly and most vulnerable in their homes – and getting food parcels to the 4000 Plymouth residents in this category.

Our community hub is also getting really good volunteer support as we work with 26 community organisations. If you’re furloughed please encourage your staff to volunteer here: https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/goodneighboursscheme

Business Grants Update

We have now paid out ￡18m in grants, including a further ￡3.85m to 365 businesses on Friday. I understand another ￡5m is ready to go out early next week. The process is slightly slowed as Government have now required us to do fraud check using a piece of software they provided us late last week.

We received 174 calls to our dedicated helpline on Friday and 1156 this week. We have now received 2950 online applications up 650 since Wednesday. We have so far accepted 1710 applications for payment.

The Hotline has been operating 7am to 7pm all this week but from Monday, after reviewing call volumes, will operate 9am to 6pm. We are experiencing huge volumes of calls and they are very complex. This is made worse by people calling over and over again when we have told they we will get back to them. Please can I ask for your understanding here. We will get to you and still hope to pay everyone within ten days. We are in danger of spending too much time servicing the few not the many.

Loans

It was very clear to us in recent days that the business loans scheme was working as envisaged, both for small businesses where the banks were asking for a level of security that defeated the point of the loan and a serious gap in provision for businesses with a turnover over 30m and up to 500m – midsized in UK terms. In Plymouth we have many businesses in both categories. We lobbied, hard along with others (Chambers and MPS), direct to the Chancellor, the LGA. LEPS and BEIS. It was therefore heartening to get a win this week with the treasury updating their business interruption loan scheme last night.

For small businesses this means no personal guarantees for loans under 250k and a new larger loan for mid- sized businesses of up to ￡25m with a government guarantee. The details can be found here along with a summary of all government support https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses

Gaps in Business Support

We are acutely aware from many heart breaking personal stories that there are gaps in the government’s current business support package. These feel very arbitrary to those impacted by them. This week we intend to identify those current gaps and then lobby for them to be filled nationally. We think we are aware of most of them but if you feel the business support misses you feel free to let us know

PCC Business Support Infographic

This is cool check it out here: https://www.plymouth.gov.uk/sites/default/files/guide-covid-19-business.jpg

Call 4 fish https://www.call4fish.com/

Keep supporting local fishermen and but direct. More boats are going out and the trade price is slowly rising. Our scheme in Plymouth is now being replicated nationally.

Shop 4 Plymouth

We are planning to develop a similar concept for Plymouth retail that we have done for fishing. The idea is simply that many local businesses are still open online. They are adapting and doing brilliant things online all delivered locally. Watch this space!

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.

All the best

David