Council Briefing Note
from The Rt Hon SIr Greg Knight MP
March
2020
I am writing to you in your capacity as
clerk of your Council, to give you some information on the subject of COVID-19,
which I hope is useful to your council.
This is a difficult time for everyone,
and some local residents may contact you with a multitude of problems, so this
is a letter to outline central government’s response so far.
Support for individuals who are
isolating
If you are self-isolating, either because
you are vulnerable or because you are infected with coronavirus, you should not
leave the house. In order to get essential supplies such as food, you should
try to order online. However, some supermarkets that are busy may not be
offering delivery slots. However, supermarkets are not the only source of food
deliveries and some local shops are now offering this service and we should all
try to support them.
If you have family or friends in the
area, you could ask them to help.
East Riding of Yorkshire Council has
launched a dedicated helpline for those who need assistance or support while
self-isolating. You can find their contact information below:
Email Address: covid@eastriding.gov.uk
Phone number: 01482 393919
Please ask others to take care when asking
someone they do not know for help, because fraudsters are exploiting
coronavirus to scam vulnerable people. It is worth consulting this document to
protect from scams:
Support for business
So far, the government has announced
£330 billion of guarantees, so any business who needs access to cash to pay
their rent, the salaries of employees, pay suppliers or purchase stock, should
be able to access a government-backed loan.
The government has also announced a
series of grants for small businesses.
Retail, hospitality and leisure
businesses operating from smaller premises, with a rateable value between
£15,000 and £51,000, are eligible for a £25,000 grant. Businesses currently
eligible for Small Business Rate Relief or Rural Rate Relief will also receive
a one-off grant of £10,000.
Furthermore, businesses will also
benefit from tax cuts worth nearly £20 billion. All businesses in the retail,
hospitality and leisure sectors have been made exempt from business rates for
12 months. If your business is having trouble paying tax, you may be eligible
to receive support through HMRC’s Time to Pay service. For further information
on this service, you can call HMRC’s dedicated COVID-19 helpline on 0800 0159
559.
Further details on all these
arrangements, including how to claim grants and loans, can be found here:
Enforced business closures
In an effort to slow the spread of
coronavirus, the government has announced that many businesses, including
restaurants, pubs and non-essential retailers, must close. You can find full
details of which businesses must close here:
The above document also lists
businesses which are exceptions to these rules. Any business which isn’t
ordered to close may remain open. However, they are strongly advised to observe
social distancing rules, such as employees, remaining at least two metres
apart.
Tradespeople and those with similar
jobs, such as cleaners, may keep working, so long as they observe social
distancing guidelines. They should try to avoid handling cash and should stay
at least two metres away from other people.
Advice and mandatory rules may change, so please keep up to
date with the latest health advice at the NHS website:
If you need any further advice about businesses,
you can also contact the Business Support Helpline:
Support for employees
As you probably know, the government
has announced extensive measures to support businesses and employees. Eligibility
for these various benefits depends on the nature of the employment. You can
find full details of the help that the government is offering workers here:
More general information about the
government’s response to COVID-19 is available here:
It’s important to note that all
employees who are on PAYE are eligible for the Coronavirus Job Retention
Scheme, including those on zero-hours contracts.
Support for self-employed
The self-employed will now be eligible
for a new Self Employment Income Support Scheme (SEISS). This will support the
self-employed whose income has fallen temporarily due to COVID-19.
The Scheme will provide further
additional support to the self-employed across the whole of the UK and is
expected to help millions of individuals. This Scheme has been developed at a rapid
pace to get support to the self-employed as soon as possible and overcome the
very challenging operational difficulties in establishing such unprecedented
further support for this group.
The Scheme will provide taxable grants
to self-employed individuals, including members of trading partnerships, worth
80% of their trading or partnership profits up to a maximum cap of £2,500 per
month. The Scheme will cover three months of an individual’s typical profits,
so an individual could receive up to £7,500. HMRC will use the average annual
profits from eligible individuals’ tax returns for 2016-17, 2017-18 and 2018-19
to determine the size of the grant for each person.
The government want to ensure that this
Scheme provides targeted support for those who most need it to ensure it is
fair. Reflecting this, individuals will be eligible to claim a grant if they:
• have lost trading profits/partnership
trading profits due to COVID-19;
• have filed a tax return for 2018-19
as self-employed or a member of a trading partnership, although we will make
special provision for those who have not filed their return for 2018-19;
• have trading profits of less than
£50,000 and more than half of their total income comes from self-employment.
The individual will qualify on this criterion if at least one of the two
following conditions applies:
-an individual’s trading profits in
2018-19 were less than £50,000 and more than half their total income in 2018-19
came from self-employment
-the average of individual’s trading
profits across the three years 2016-17, 2017-18, and 2018-19 were less than
£50,000, and more than half their total income in those three years came from
self-employment
These criteria reduce the opportunity
for abuse of the Scheme and ensure those who rely primarily on their trading
profits from self-employment receive support. These individuals must be the
priority for any taxpayer-funded help to deal with sharply reduced income over
the next few months. 95% of people who receive the majority of their income
from self-employment are eligible for this Scheme.
Once the Scheme is operational, HMRC
will use existing information to check potential eligibility and invite
applications. Eligible individuals will use a simple online form to verify
their eligibility. HMRC will then pay a single lump sum grant covering all 3
months straight into the individual’s bank account.
The grants are subject to Income Tax
and National Insurance so will then be reportable on future Income Tax Self
Assessment tax returns.
HMRC has published further guidance on
GOV.UK at www.gov.uk/guidance/claim-agrant-through-the-coronavirus-covid-19-self-employment-income-support-scheme
The factsheet is available at www.gov.uk/government/publications/support-for-those-affected-by-covid-19
BEIS have also developed guidance
specifically for employers and businesses at www.businesssupport.gov.uk/coronavirus-business-support/
Caravanners and holidaymakers
The government issued new instructions on
23rd March 2020, which outlined further businesses which must close.
This includes hotels, pubs, and holiday parks. Furthermore, the government has
ordered people to stay at home, unless absolutely necessary. Therefore, there
should be very few people in caravan parks and similar areas, and hopefully
from now on you should not see an abundance of holidaymakers out and about during
this crisis.
There are, however, exceptions. Where
someone is living in a caravan park because it is their primary residence, or
because another primary residence is unavailable, then they are legally allowed
to stay. This is why some caravan parks and similar sites across the East
Riding may not be closed completely. Someone who is staying in a caravan or
lodge therefore on such a long-term basis CAN CONTINUE TO DO SO.
Renters
The government has listened to the
concerns of private renters and is taking measures to ensure that no one will
be forced out of their home by their landlord in this difficult time. The
government is introducing emergency legislation so that no landlord will be
able to start proceedings to evict tenants for at least a three month period.
The matter will be kept under review and further announcements may be made in
the light of developing events.
Emergency Legislation
The government is doing what it feels
it must to stop the spread of this horrible infection. You can see details of
the Act’s provisions on the gov.uk website:
Parliament has fully supported the
government in fighting this pandemic.
So far as emergency powers are
concerned, the Act has what is called a “sunset clause” of two years, but, at
the request of Parliament, the government amended the bill so it will be
reviewed every six months.
Because of this, the emergency measures
being introduced will not last longer than necessary and will not be open to
longer-term abuse.
I am aware that that the provisions of
this act are far-reaching and unprecedented. However, the government feels the
current pandemic is a unique situation which requires drastic -but temporary-
changes to the law.
Please note that the best place to keep
up to date with the latest health advice is the NHS website:
I hope these measures will help local
East Riding residents through this difficult time. If anyone seeks further guidance
or advice, you can use the contents of this email, or if you or they have any
further concerns, please contact me.
Sir Greg
Knight MP - Telephone enquiries call
01377 812123 or 020 7219 4077.
or, you can write to: The Rt Hon Sir Greg Knight House of Commons,
London SW1A 0AA
Yours sincerely,
Greg Sir Greg Knight MP
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