Rutland Businesses Encouraged to Prepare for Disasters with New Support Scheme
New project aims to support smaller firms and keep local jobs safe
Small and medium businesses across Rutland are being told to get ready for emergencies ranging from flooding to staff sickness with new resources from the Local Resilience Forum.
The scheme, backed by toolkits, events and webinars, is designed to help firms keep operating during unexpected problems.
Preventing closures and protecting local jobs
Mark Warden from the forum said:
“We're quite conscious that large businesses will have their own sort of arrangements in place, but actually those small and medium ones that are the heart of communities might not necessarily have those.”
Mark adds, “Things like flooding are the big events, but on a day-to-day basis, if you're a small business and you have two or three key members of staff that are off sick, that could cause an issue.”
It's really important that communities are able to support themselves
He says supporting these businesses will help prevent closures and protect local jobs.
Mark also highlights the importance of a community approach, especially in rural areas like Rutland.
“A response from a sort of public sector organisation may take time."
"So it's really important that communities are able to support themselves and almost that's as the first responders on scene,” he says.
The initiative is funded through the Ministry of Housing, Communities and Local Government’s Innovation Grant scheme.