• Southampton City Council has launched a COVID-19 telephone helpline dedicated to businesses for any concerns or questions you may have. Call them on 023 8083 4300, open Mon – Fri, 8.30am to 5pm. Please note this service is still operating on Good Friday and Easter Monday.
  
  
• There is still time to complete our coronavirus business impact survey – take part here. 
  
  
• The latest Urban Lecture Series event, Growing Creative Communities, took place this week and was successfully presented as a webcast. Thank you to everyone who joined us, Darren Bray for hosting and to our guest speakers Professor Lorraine Farrelly, Clare Diaper and Bob Allies.
  
  The next lecture, Curated City, is on 5 May from 5.30pm and will again take place online. Guest speakers are Amanda Reynolds (AR Urbanism) and Stephen Greenberg (Principle Metaphor) – register here. 
  
  
• Our new B2C campaign is in full swing across our Visit Southampton channels - read the full news article here. Your support in sharing this campaign with your customers through your own social feeds, email newsletters etc. would be greatly appreciated - view our Visit Southampton blog post for more details. 
  
  

• HMRC is running live webinars on 14 and 15 April for businesses to help give guidance on the Coronavirus Job Retention Scheme. There are multiple times available across the two days - register here. See further HMRC guidance about support for businesses, including video guides, here.

• Business Secretary Alok Sharma, has this week written a letter to the UK's retail sector which you can read here.
  
  
• A new £750m funding package has been announced by the Chancellor to support frontline charities. For more information go here. 

• For Government guidance for businesses, employers and employees go here.
• Sign up for the Government’s specific business support email bulletins here.
  
• Sign up for general government coronavirus email updates here.
• Find out about the Government's WhatsApp service here.
• View the Council's latest coronavirus information here.
• Sign up for the Council's business e-newsletter here.
  

• A factsheet about the coronavirus business interruption loan scheme (CIBLS) for SMEs from the British Business Bank can be found here.
• Find out more about retailTRUST who are fundraising for shop workers facing hardship here.
• Read the 'Managing Staff Matters' blog from HJS Human Resources here. 
• A new toolkit has been released for businesses to support the Take Five campaign to help stop financial fraud - view here. 
• The Arts Council England have made £160 million of emergency funding available to support cultural venues. View updates here.
• For NHS coronavirus advice and information go here.
• Solent LEP have launched a crowdfunder 'Pay It Forward' programme to help micro and small businesses financially. Read more here.

Our Contact Information  

You can reach the BID team via info@gosouthampton.co.uk. Contact details for individual team members are on our website here.

If you have any queries at all, or if you think we might be able to help you with something specific, please do not hesitate to contact us.