Chamber report calls for business support

Funding success: Lichfield Garrick

Arts sector gets financial aid

The arts and culture sector has been awarded thousands in grant and loan cash in a bid to offset the severe impact caused by Covid-19.

More than £400m has been awarded to organisations via the Government’s Culture Recovery Fund, as part of a drive to help culture and heritage sectors reopen.

Seventy per cent of funding has gone to firms located outside of London.

Nearly all of the original £1.57bn Culture Recovery Fund has now been allocated, with more than £1.2bn in grants and repayable finance offered to more than 5,000 individual organisations and sites.

Swathes of Greater Birmingham-based organisations received funding, including Birmingham International Jazz Festival, Birmingham Museums Trust, The Rep, Birmingham Royal Ballet, the CBSO, Ex Cathedra, Ikon Gallery, Lichfield Garrick, Lichfield Festival, Midlands Art Centre, Services for Education, Sutton Coldfield Town Hall, DanceXchange and the Jam House.

Karen Foster, chief executive Lichfield Garrick, one of the organisations which received a cash boost from the fund, said: “After a very difficult year for the arts, the news that we have been successful in the second round of emergency funding means that we can now rebuild our programme of performances.”

Government must go further: Henrietta Brealey

Chamber report calls for business support

By Dan Harrison

New sector-specific support for the hardest-hit industries and reforming the business rates system to free up cash for businesses are among a number of recommendations to Government in a new report published by Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce.

Keep Business Moving II sets out areas of Covid-19 business support which require urgent action.

The report was produced in consultation with the Chamber Council, a group of elected business figures who work with the Chamber’s policy team on where to best target resources and feed back the views of members.

‘The Chamber will continue to stand side by side with our members by championing, celebrating and promoting them’

Building on the findings of the Back Our Businesses document released in January, Keep Business Moving II identifies a number of gaps in existing support packages and sets out a series of recommendations in order to alleviate those issues.

Henrietta Brealey, CEO of Greater Birmingham Chambers of Commerce, said: “There are still many businesses in the hardest hit sectors that have not been able to operate fully or at all, in over a year and despite the unprecedented nature of support provided by the Government to date, a number of worrying gaps remain in play as our latest report sets out.

“The Chamber will continue to stand side by side with our members by championing, celebrating and promoting them as impacted businesses reopen at each stage of the roadmap and as always, fight their corner.”

Keep Business Moving II includes case studies and quotes from several Chamber members including Marija Ezren, co-founder at Solutions 2, Tracey Stephenson, co-founder at Staying Cool and Erica Love, director at Culture Central.

Recommendations include:

• Make sector specific interventions to support those industries such as live events and aviation that have received relatively little financial support • Ease the crippling cash burdens that businesses across the country are facing right now in order to free up much needed cash by exploring the possibility of reforming the business rates system and also making it much easier for businesses to invest in their people and products • Widen support mechanisms for those currently excluded from existing measures such as limited company directors and those significantly impacted supply chain companies • Bring forward enhanced grant support for the most impacted ‘closed’ businesses with high overheads • Offer full clarity on how they will assess their four tests for reopening the economy and provide regular updates on progress in between steps to help business plan ahead