Millions of people could be vaccinated against coronavirus as the UK secures early access to 90 million doses of promising COVID-19 vaccine candidates. Announced by Business Secretary Alok Sharma today (Monday 20 July), the government has agreed significant partnerships with leading pharmaceutical and vaccine companies BioNTech/Pfizer and Valneva that are developing innovative new vaccines to protect people against coronavirus. The government has also secured access to treatments containing COVID-19-neutralising antibodies from AstraZeneca to protect those who cannot receive vaccines such as cancer and immunocompromised patients. As a result of these partnerships, England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland could have access to enough…
Author: sme-admin
People using pubs, restaurants and cafes will soon have greater freedom to choose non-smoking outdoor areas following Government plans announced last week. More and more people are eating outside as lockdown eases, & the Government wants non-smokers to be better protected. Under the Business and Planning Bill, the Government had already set out a range of measures to help vital hospitality businesses safely reopen and get staff back to work by making it quicker, easier and cheaper to operate outside. The Government will not ban outdoor smoking. Since the existing ban was introduced, businesses have invested heavily in their outdoor…
The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has released a new report which has revealed the number of people in the UK who are now unemployed as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic has risen to 649,000. The data is from March to June, and with further job cuts being announced every day in a wide range of sectors – most significantly, across the retail industry the effects of COVID-19 are being felt in the job market. As a result, the number of people claiming work-related benefits rose to more than 2.6 million in the same time period. With many businesses…
With businesses across the country now being being encouraged to reopen workplaces to employees who cannot work from home, HR will be required to manage the needs of employees with particular circumstances that make it difficult or impossible for them to return to work, such as health concerns, childcare or transport issues. Applying a blanket approach to all employees will not be appropriate, and a return to work challenge for HR managers will need to be addressed and reassure a possible anxious workforce of the new “norm”. To top it all off, HR Managers will be expected to forecast and…
While the UK Government has stated that those who can work from home should continue to do so for as long as possible, it has also reinforced the message that if people are unable to work from home, they should be encouraged to go to work – provided they can follow the now familiar health and social distancing guidelines which have been drummed into us all from March. It is time to plan for when things start returning back to normal – whatever normal will be. Returning to work after Covid-19 will be different and will take some adapting to…
The Government announced today that it is to relax planning legislation to make it easier to construct large batteries to store renewable energy from solar and wind farms across the UK. Removing barriers for energy storage projects, which are discouraging bolder investment decisions in larger battery facilities, could treble the number of batteries serving the electricity grid. It will help bring about storage cells that are 5 times bigger than those currently available. The UK has the largest installed capacity of offshore wind farms in the world, however, because the availability and speed of the wind is not constant, energy…
336,000 properties in England better protected from flooding by 2027 with £5.2 billion investment. Homes and businesses across England will be better protected and more resilient in future after the government revealed its long-term plan to tackle the risks of flooding and coastal erosion. The measures set out in the new plan are the most comprehensive in a decade, including investment of £5.2 billion to create around 2,000 new flood and coastal defences to better protect 336,000 properties in England by 2027, alongside support to help households and businesses get back on their feet more quickly after flooding. The plans also include…
Restaurants and other establishments serving food for on-premises consumption can now sign up to a new government initiative aimed at protecting jobs in the hospitality industry and encouraging people to safely return to dining out. The Eat Out to Help Out registration service went live this morning on GOV.UK, allowing businesses to join the scheme announced last week by Rishi Sunak MP, Chancellor of the Exchequer. Find out how to register for the Eat Out to Help Out Scheme. Restaurants, bars, cafes and other establishments who use the scheme will offer a 50% reduction, up to a maximum of £10 per person,…
Great British Expos, UK’s largest regional business shows organiser, brought together some of the UK’s Biggest Entrepreneurs digitally in an exciting new virtual conference format- SME Today Expo. The event which took place on 30th June 2020, was aimed at helping SMEs, Micro Businesses, Sole Traders and Business owners in these difficult times and created a day packed with insight, inspiration education and innovation, delivered via online sessions. Over 700 people pre-registered and between 75 – 130 people were in attendance on most of the sessions. The twelve sessions which formed the digital event covered key topics relevant to businesses…
The Chancellor Rishi Sunak today set out a ‘Plan for Jobs’ that will spur the UK’s recovery from the Coronavirus outbreak. The Chancellor announced a package of measures to support jobs and give businesses the confidence to hopefully retain, hire and provide people with the tools they need to get better jobs. The plan for jobs is the second part of a three-phase plan to secure the UK’s economic recovery from coronavirus. The first stage was a £160 billion support package, which included £49 billion of extra funding for the country’s vital public services including the NHS, paying the wages…