Lewisham Council wins two awards for helping small businesses
Winners were announced at a virtual event on Friday 14 October which saw Lewisham Council become Greater London regional winners, before going on to take the all-England title in the COVID-19 Support and Recovery category.
Judges said they were impressed by the Council’s work to help its small business community during the pandemic and the support it is providing to help them thrive, as part of its local economic recovery programme:
- The establishment of ‘Lewisham Backs Business’, a partnership of key stakeholders which helped shape and deliver support to over 21,000 businesses visited by Council teams to promote grants available
- The introduction of a fortnightly business e-newsletter which now has over 4,000 subscribers
- 14,000 grants were administered totalling £76m to borough businesses. A discretionary grants scheme was adapted to support home-based and freelance businesses helping to establish a network of 60 local businesses deemed integral to Lewisham borough’s future growth
- Supporting local business diversity – the UK’s first local authority to conduct a headcount of local independent businesses in order to deliver tailored support to ethnically diverse-owned enterprises.
- Celebrating local businesses annually through the Mayor’s Business Awards
- Business Resilience and Growth programme which supports 218 businesses to grow post-pandemic.
- A programme to equip 50 businesses to get into the Council’s supply chain
- Establishing a Business Centre - BIPC Lewisham - within a library to promote access for all.
Cllr Kim Powell, Cabinet Member for Business, Jobs and Skills at Lewisham Council said:
“It means so much to receive these awards from FSB. It’s great to get this recognition for the team’s hard work.
“During the pandemic we changed our approach to better engage and support our local businesses. We’ve become far more proactive in reaching out to businesses – whether on the high street or online – to properly understand the types of help and advice they would benefit from.
“We were the first council in the country to conduct a headcount and survey on our high street to understand the ethnic diversity of our local business owners to understand barriers and better target the support we offered to help them thrive post-pandemic.
“Our new programmes, such as the new business facility in Catford Library, show that our commitment to supporting our local small businesses will continue.”
Michael Lassman, FSB London Regional Chair said:
“I am delighted that the hard work of Lewisham Council had been recognised nationally amidst a high-quality field of entries by local councils.
“For Lewisham Council to win this prestigious, first-ever national FSB title is fantastic news and a real reward for the hard work and effort they have put in to help local SMEs through what has been a very challenging couple of years.
“The sheer quality and quantity of entries from this region and beyond was staggering so Lewisham Council should feel very proud to be among the select band of national winners. We look forward to continuing to work with them - and all our other business-supporting councils - to ensure we have a vibrant and strong local SME community.”