Welcome to the Harborough Business Bulletin. We provide a fortnightly overview of the latest business related news, initiatives and support packages.

A new campaign that puts Leicester and Leicestershire’s regional food, drink and tourism on the map is ready to serve up a great menu! There's great food and drink flavours from an amazing selection of local businesses here. This exciting marketing campaign from Visit Leicester inspires and tickles the tastebuds of hungry visitors across 4 key themes:-

• A taste of England

• The World on a Plate

• Food for Thought

• The Home of Veganism. 

We are excited to develop and promote this across Harborough District and invite you to our launch event on Thursday 31 August at 5pm at Cafe Ventoux, near Tugby.  Join us to Taste The Place and hear about :-

• A new food and drink event calendar

• Taste Adventures in Leicester & Leicestershire’ with itineraries, trails and interactive maps promoting the best food and drink independents

• Pub and cafe walks for foodies introducing great places to eat and drink. 

• Exciting video and social media promotions. 
  
  

The Insolvency Service has launched a new online information hub to support company directors.

The hub hosts guidance and information on a range of business themes commonly faced by companies and aims to help company directors to push their business forward by being more aware of potential pitfalls.

It is specifically designed for directors of micro, small and medium-size limited companies, although it will also be useful to others. Directors of limited companies, unlike sole traders, must comply with certain statutory obligations. These can range from hairdressers and builders with their own companies to directors of mid-sized companies in the IT sector, for example.

Examples of the kind of advice available on the information hub include:

• understanding company finances, director duties and obligations.

• how to recognise early warning signs of financial distress.

• how and when limited company debts can become personal debts.

The new information hub was developed after Insolvency Service research found that company directors wanted a single online hub to host clear and concise guidance, with signposts to more detailed guidance and support where needed. As well as direct research with company directors, the project also worked closely with teams in HMRC and Companies House, business finance specialists at Royal Bank of Scotland, and business groups including The Directors Helpline, the Institute for Turnaround (IFT), the Institute for Directors (IoD), and the Federation of Small Businesses (FSB) amongst others.

Employees across the UK will be given even more flexibility over where and when they work, as the Employment Relations (Flexible Working) Bill receives Royal Assent.

Flexible working is a broad term and can relate to working hours or pattern including part-time, term-time, flexi-time, compressed hours, or adjusting start and finish times. It can also include flexibility over where someone works, whether that be from home or a satellite office shortening their commute. 

Workers will benefit from the following new protections once in force:

• New requirements for employers to consult with the employee before rejecting their flexible working request.

• Permission to make two statutory requests in any 12-month period (rather than the current one request).

• Reduced waiting times for decisions to be made (within which an employer administers the statutory request) from three months to two months.

• The removal of existing requirements that the employee must explain what effect, if any, the change applied for would have on the employer and how that effect might be dealt with.

• Alongside the measures in the Bill, millions of workers will be given the right to request flexible working from day one of a new job. 

As well as clear benefits to workers, the measures are also good for British business. Research has shown companies that embrace flexible working can attract more talent, improve staff motivation and reduce staff turnover – boosting their business’s productivity and competitiveness.

CIPD research shows that 6 percent of employees changed jobs last year specifically due to a lack of flexible options and 12 percent left their profession altogether due to a lack of flexibility within the sector. This represents almost 2 and 4 million workers respectively.

Do you have a growth project? The Invest to Grow Programme provides loans and grants to support private sector businesses across the East Midlands to innovate, grow, adapt and create jobs. The programme aims to generate economic activity by investing in enterprise growth and to promote the creation of new jobs and the safeguarding of existing positions.

Small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs), large enterprises, sole traders and partnerships located in the East Midlands can apply.

Funding is available for projects that will create new jobs and where these jobs can be sustained for a minimum of three years (five years for large organisations).  Projects are welcomed that create higher-skilled jobs (at or above NVQ level 4).

The types of project that Invest to Grow may support include:

• Development or improvement of products and related services

• Expansion or upgrading of business premises, machinery and/or equipment

• Innovation in products, processes and systems that will result in business and supply chain efficiency, growth and profitability