Crawley Town Centre and Manor Royal BID’s are backing a campaign calling on the Government to do more to support retail, hospitality and leisure businesses in the town.
The ‘Bounce Back Better’ campaign has been organised by Croydon BID, British BIDs, Association of Town & City Management and The BID Foundation – a manifesto outlining four critical asks to support the retail, hospitality and leisure sector.
Both Crawley Town Centre and Manor Royal Business Improvement Districts want retail, hospitality and leisure businesses to be given a one off £15,000 grant, a pause on National Insurance contributions for furloughed employees, extension on business rate holidays and an extension of the VAT reduction scheme, to help them survive the Covid pandemic.
The BID bosses spoke out after many businesses have been in touch with deep concerns on the viability of their businesses after March 2021.
They are encouraging anyone who works or shops in Crawley Town Centre or Manor Royal to back the ‘Bounce Back Better’ campaign, which asks the Government to provide the one-off grant to firms with a rateable value of up to £150,000.
Neil Cooper, Chair of the Crawley Town Centre BID said:
“Crawley Town Centre has a huge amount of retail and hospitality businesses who have been devastated by the pandemic, either having to close or open with vastly reduced services.
“We should be doing everything we can to help these businesses survive”
Steve Sawyer, Executive Director of the Manor Royal BID said:
“Retail is an important sector for Crawley and we have a higher proportion of people employed in hospitality compared to Great Britain as a whole. These otherwise viable businesses need more help if we want our favourite shop, café, hotel and restaurant to survive.”
The Bounce Back Better campaign has been launched by Croydon BID, which is looking for other BIDs, councils and statutory bodies to add their support. Show your support for the campaign by visiting the www.raisethebarcampaign.com to sign the petition
