Online tool to help businesses see what financial support is available for them

The Government has launched a new Business Support Finder to help employers easily identify what support is available to them and their business.

The finder tool on GOV.UK will ask business owners to fill out a simple online questionnaire, which can take minutes to complete. They will then be directed to a list of all the financial support they may be eligible for.

The Government hopes that the financial business support on offer will save millions of jobs that would otherwise be lost. At 8am yesterday, HMRC opened the Coronavirus Jobs Retention Scheme and by 4pm, over 140,000 firms had applied.

Grant funding provided to businesses by local authorities in England

The Government has published data on the amount of money distributed to SMEs by every local authority in England as part of the two grant schemes launched to help businesses deal with Covid-19.

The UK government has distributed £12.3 billion to local authorities in England, and as of 20 April 2020, £6.11 billion has been paid out to 491,725 businesses properties, approximately half of the grant funding allocated (49.58%).

Simon Clarke, Minister of State for Regional Growth and Local Government, wrote to local authorities yesterday. He thanked councils for their efforts responding to the coronavirus pandemic and provided further details of the support on offer, including the additional £1.6 billion of new funding to help councils across the country through the coronavirus pandemic, which takes the total funding provided to £3.2 billion.

Government has taken further action to support bus and lorry drivers

Temporary changes have been applied to help keep 30,000 drivers on the road each month – essential to keeping key supply chains flowing.

The changes - which apply to drivers whose licences are due to expire or have expired since 1 January 2020 - include:

• temporary removal of the routine D4 medical
• as long as they are fit to drive, applicants will be able to apply for a one-year licence without the need to provide further medical evidence

The DVLA has assured the BVRLA that these licence renewal applications are being given the highest priority.

Members are advised that there is a specific address that these applications must be sent to: DVLA, Swansea SA99 1BR.

DVLA extends deregistration period

The DVLA has extended the period after registration in which a vehicle can be deregistered from seven working days to 14 working days.

Members may wish to liaise with dealers, where possible, to see if vehicles which were due to be delivered on the cusp of the lockdown and are no longer required can be deregistered.

DVLA warns of fraudulent websites

The DVLA is warning drivers about misleading third-party websites passing themselves off as DVLA.

These sites might, for example, offer to help you apply for a driving licence, tax your car or connect you to a DVLA contact centre. These sites will often charge additional fees for services that you can get for free or at a lower cost on GOV.UK.

To try and pass themselves off as genuine, these sites might include ‘DVLA’ in their web address (URL). They might also design their site to appear as if it’s DVLA - for example, using DVLA’s old ‘green triangle’ logo, which is no longer in use.

Don’t be fooled by these sites - even if they appear at the top of search engine results. Always double check you’re using GOV.UK.