Sandwell Council and Think Sandwell are communicating with businesses in the borough to highlight the support and advice on offer to you during the coronavirus outbreak.

The government has announced a package of economic measures to help businesses through this difficult time.

For advice and support from national agencies, regional providers and Sandwell Council, you can visit our COVID-19 support page.

If you would like to speak to a member of the council’s Business Growth Team, please email think_sandwell@sandwell.gov.uk. An adviser will come back to you by phone.

Alternatively you can leave your contact details and a short summary about your business, and our team will respond by email by the next working day.

Council Leader Councillor Yvonne Davies said: “It’s absolutely vital to support our business community at this time, with real concerns about the economic impact of the coronavirus outbreak.

“We have lots of small to medium sized businesses in Sandwell, and we want them to get in touch if they need our advice by contacting our excellent Think Sandwell service.”

Among measures the council has taken and is taking to support businesses in Sandwell are:

*  Suspending court action for recovery of business rates (from 13 March)
* Issuing reminder notices to encourage contact from businesses, so that the council can understand your individual situation
* Suspending the issue of new cases for enforcement agent action
* Putting all existing enforcement action on hold with all enforcement agents
* Negotiating repayments where possible and/or agreeing to a hold in recovery action for a period where businesses are struggling.

Councillor Davies added: “We will continue working with businesses and looking at how we can best support them at this time.”

Here you will find more information about the council’s response and support available to Sandwell’s communities: https://www.sandwell.gov.uk/coronavirus.