Coronavirus: Marches LEP welcomes business help
The organisation charged with driving economic growth across the region has welcomed new measures to help business survive the coronavirus crisis – and pledged to do everything it can to ensure as much help as possible reaches the region.
The Marches Local Enterprise Partnership said the £350 billion package of measures announced by Chancellor Rishi Sunak will give much-needed aid to businesses fighting to survive the crisis.
Marches LEP chair Mandy Thorn said she expected more measures to be announced in the coming days and promised that the LEP would use its role to lobby the Government on behalf of all businesses in Herefordshire, Shropshire and Telford & Wrekin.
The financial measures announced yesterday include £330 billion in loans, £20 billion in other aid, a business rates holiday and grants for retailers and pubs, and come on top of measures already announced in the Budget.
Mrs Thorn said: “This is an unprecedented emergency which requires an unprecedented response. It is essential that our business community is given all the necessary help to survive the coming months so that otherwise successful companies are not placed in jeopardy through no fault of their own.
“This package of support will play an important part in doing that but it needs to be available immediately to be most effective so that employers can pay staff this month and start planning for the next few months.
“We will continue to lobby Government for further measures to support our businesses and use our unrivalled expertise in promoting business support to make sure all business can access this help.
“Our Marches Growth Hub already offers access to a huge range of schemes and will play an important role in promoting this new support and ensuring it reaches the people who need it most.”
