Many of our tenants’ lives and livelihoods have been severely impacted by COVID-19. As lockdown restrictions start to ease, some businesses, particularly those that are not allowed to open, will continue to require support.

For the next three months, The Arch Company will build on the approach we took in the last quarter, providing financial support to independent small businesses most severely affected. As we said at the start, we want as many as possible of the diverse and independent SMEs that are the heart of the arches to be able to survive through the crisis.

Throughout the next quarter, any independent small businesses that are banned from opening by government guidance will continue to receive a rent-free until such time as they are allowed to open.

We also appreciate that even if a business has been permitted to open again, it may still be facing adverse trading conditions. Independent small businesses that are able to open, but still severely affected by COVID-19, will get July rent-free. For August and September, they will have the option of drawing down deposit funds, if available, to cover half the rent. If no deposits are available then half the rent can be deferred instead.

The support will be assessed monthly, and tenants will need to pay half the rent for August and September. Tenants who require further support to pay rent in August or September for any reason, should contact The Arch Company via the Coronavirus Support Unit.

Deposits and deferrals will not need to be replaced or paid back until June 2021 and will not be subject to interest during this twelve month period.

Our Coronavirus Support Unit will continue to provide guidance on accessing government and local authority financial help, in addition to supporting businesses with questions and protocols on the easing of restrictions and restarting their businesses.

If you are:

• One of our tenants
• An independent, small business
• Still closed or having your operations severely affected by COVID-19

Then please fill in the application form on this page to seek our support over the coming months. To make this as easy as possible, we have tried to limit the information request but would ask you provide as full and complete answers as possible as it will help our review. If our initial assessment indicates that further information may be needed around a business’ financial health, then we may get in touch to ask some further questions.

If successful, we’ll confirm that you will receive the first month’s support. We will require updates from you each month on the status of your business (have you re-opened, is trading still severely affected by COVID-19 and so on) as time goes on to confirm that the later months’ support is still appropriate. We will provide more details of what will be required in due course.

GUIDANCE NOTES ON GOVERNMENT SUPPORT

We have provided this note on the government support measures available during the Coronavirus crisis for your general information only. The note is not intended to be advice that you rely on and we would encourage you to obtain your own independent advice before making any decisions or taking action on the basis of this note. Please note that the situation in relation to government assistance is evolving constantly and although we will try to issue regular updates, we recommend that you make your own inquiries as to the up to date position before you make any decisions.

Last updated on 15.05.2020 at 5.00pm.

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INDEPENDENT EMPLOYMENT LAW HELPLINE FOR TENANTS

The Arch Company has set up and is funding an independent employment law email helpline for the exclusive benefit of its tenants, via employment law experts TandonHildebrand.

TandonHildebrand are being made available on an initial free of charge basis to all of our tenants to offer expert legal advice and guidance on all employment law issues related to the ongoing Coronavirus crisis.

This would include advice in relation to:

- The Government’s Job Retention Scheme and how to put employees on furlough leave
- Redundancies
- Laying-off staff
- Withdrawing offers of employment
- Reducing staffing costs
- Changing terms of employment
- The operation of Statutory Sick Pay;
- Balancing business operations and staffing costs.

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This form is now CLOSED, please do not submit any new applications.

A new form for June applications onwards will open very soon.