Oxford City Council COVID-19 Support

We realise this is an extremely challenging and concerning time, and we are committed to doing what we can to support businesses and communities affected by the coronavirus outbreak.

Oxford City Council has a dedicated team working to ensure that all the support for businesses announced in recent days can be quickly facilitated and made available to you and your employees.

Our team is standing ready, and our goal is to ensure businesses in Oxford can be the first to access the new loans, grants and rate relief.

We are also working closely with our partners, such as Oxfordshire Local Enterprise Partnership, Experience Oxfordshire and other local councils, to ensure you have as much support as possible.

The attached document contains a list of all the support that the Government has made available to businesses in recent days, how to access the support, and other information and guidance.

While I am clear that the Government can, and should, do much more in this area around grants to businesses, if you are facing cash flow issues then I would encourage you to consider making use of these loans.

To help us lobby the Government for further support for you and your businesses, to guide additional business support measures that we are developing, and so we can gain a clear understanding of the impact of coronavirus on businesses and jobs in Oxford, we have created a short survey.

You can take part in the survey here: https://www.surveymonkey.co.uk/r/oxford-city-businesses.

We will treat all responses in absolute confidence.

(Please note: If you are a business tenant in an Oxford City Council-owned property, you will also get a version of this letter directly from our Oxford City Council property team. To help us collate responses from our tenants, please use the survey link in that letter to complete the survey.)

This is a rapidly evolving situation. We will monitor all developments, and will do our best to keep you updated and provide you with the latest information on ways to access any available support.

If you have any concerns or questions about any of the above, please contact us directly by calling: 01865 252507 / 01865 252060 or emailing economicdevelopment@oxford.gov.uk.

Yours sincerely

Susan Brown
Leader of Oxford City Council