IMPORTANT: Community centres and similar buildings ordered to close

IMPORTANT NOTICE:

The Prime Minister announced last night (Monday 23 March) that most shops and other premises must now close until further notice.  This includes ‘community centres, youth centres and similar’, with the exception that ‘Facilities may remain open for the purpose of hosting essential voluntary or public services, such as food banks or homeless services.’  Please see page 4 of the guidance at this link.

The Government is still working out details of how it will support people whose employer has had to close or greatly reduce its activities.  The basics, though, are that HMRC will directly pay 80% of the wages of ‘furloughed workers’ up to a maximum of £2,500 per month – see this web page.  This page also has information about other support for businesses and organisations.  Keep checking back for updates, and we will do our best to share the latest news as soon as we can.

National survey of community buildings – please respond by 31 March

In the meantime, please respond to the national (England-wide) village and community halls survey if you are able to.  We need as many responses as possible by Monday 20 April (deadline extended from 31 March) so we have a good picture of what things are like for you and what kind of support you need, both from us and the Government.  There is more information here or you can go directly to the survey.

(Closed sign image by Tobias Heine from Pixabay)