The Prime Minister’s statement and advice yesterday and the subsequent temporary or pending closure of our nation’s small businesses, many of which are beauty industry related, has meant we have to look beyond and in addition to best practices for the spread of corona virus and look at what short, medium and long term business interruption means for the many hair, nail and beauty salons, freelancers and brands.

This is a rapidly evolving, unprecedented situation, and we’ve been listening carefully to the concerns of the industry across all platforms to determine the next steps.

We urge you to look at the chancellor’s 2020 budget in detail. A highlight of the government’s actions are as follows;

• £12 billion plan to provide support for public services, individuals and businesses, whose finances are affected by COVID-19
• A statutory sick pay relief package for SMEs
• A 12-month business rates holiday for all retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in England
• Small business grant funding of £10,000 for all business in receipt of small business rate relief or rural rate relief
• Grant funding of £25,000 for retail, hospitality and leisure businesses with property with a rateable value between £15,000 and £51,000
• The Coronavirus Business Interruption Loan Scheme to support long-term viable businesses who may need to respond to cash-flow pressures by seeking additional finance
• The HMRC Time To Pay Scheme

Every employer and employee needs to take responsibility for keeping themselves up to date, we will bring you as much information as we can in a concise manner, with some additional editorial opinions. However we are very small team collating a lot of information and much of this can be found through the following links:

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/budget-2020-documents/budget-2020#budget-report

https://www.gov.uk/government/publications/guidance-to-employers-and-businesses-about-covid-19/covid-19-support-for-businesses

In the meantime please email us at Joinme@britishbeautycouncil.com with any questions, concerns or experiences that you would like to share so that we can support you during this difficult time.

Millie Kendall MBE

CEO, British Beauty Council