// Save The High Street launches new Covid-19 support programme for 200,000+ small retailers across the UK
// Save The High Street will work with businesses for 12 weeks to develop a business plan
// The plans will focus on what retailers should do to adapt and protect their businesses amid the pandemic
Save The High Street has launched a new Covid-19 support programme for the 200,000-plus small retailers across the UK struggling amid the coronavirus pandemic.
Save The High Street, a lobby group that campaigns for diverse and successful high streets nationwide, said it would work with businesses for 12 weeks to develop a personalised business plan, focusing what retailers should do to adapt and protect their businesses.
This includes negotiating with landlords and suppliers, help in applying for grants and loans, assistance in setting up an ecommerce site, offering local delivery, hosting virtual events, and new modes of community engagement to all forms of digital marketing.
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Save The High Street said it would use its digital assistant app called Jo to ensure the support can be delivered remotely and affordably for all high street businesses in the UK.
In addition, the group is also launching an email newsletter to provide subscribers with a new idea every day.
It said each idea would focus on something positive that a local business or a local community champion could be doing on the coronavirus-era high street.
Save The High Street said its new scheme was pertinent because more than half of UK high street stores are run by independent business owners without the skills, experience, resources and/or professional support required to achieve a transition plan on their own.
“The high street will never be the same again, but it is not dead,” Save The High Street founding partner Alex Schlagman said.
“Diverse, successful high streets benefit us all and to ensure that future, we will need an army of successful local independents.
“The SaveTheHighStreet.org Covid-19 support programme exists to ensure every local business in the UK has the best chance of success through these unprecedented times.”
Save The High Street said it has built partnerships with 150-plus local authorities, Business Improvement Districts (BIDs), local community groups, trade associations and landlords to ensure its new support is available to local businesses across the UK as quickly as possible.
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