So to make sure you get paid,  you need to have clear payment terms between your business and your customers. A handshake just won’t cut it I’m afraid. Even if you don’t have formal terms & conditions yet, an exchange of emails setting out what you will be providing and what you are expecting in return will amount to a contract.It’s just not as tidy and can lead to misunderstandings…

As a minimum, your terms & conditions ( or your email confirming the deal) should have the following clauses:

• A term that states the overall price for your goods or services and whether VAT is included
• A term that states when you will be invoicing for the goods or services e.g. once you have provided them or a deposit upfront followed by a balance payment
• The date by which you expect to be paid. Normally your invoice will have words such as “Payment is due within 30 days of the date of this invoice“. Don’t be tempted to say “within receipt of the invoice..” otherwise your customer could argue that they never received it and hence don’t have to pay!
• The method of payment. Make it is easy as possible by stating your bank details clearly on the invoice or sign up to Paypal or other payment processor. You don’t want your customers putting cheques being put in the post with the hassle then of paying them in and being charged for the privilege!
• A term explaining what will happen if they don’t pay on time. You may wish to stop work on their matter or stop supplying the goods. You could charge interest or as a last resort terminate the contract. Its up to you.

If you are not sure about whether your terms & conditions have the right wording, give us a call and we will be happy to help.

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These clauses usually sit in the payment terms section of terms & conditions. If you are in a long term supply agreement, as a purchaser, you will want to make sure that the product prices remain favourable to you throughout the term. However, as a supplier, you will want to make sure that you keep up with inflation and be able to adjust your prices accordingly. The solution is to have a clause which sets out that product prices may be adjusted based on changes to certain indexes agreed upon at the outset.

What is a price index?

Put simply, a price index is the measure  over time of the cost of goods that you put in an imaginary shopping basket. There are different types of ‘basket’ depending on the industry or type of service that you are seeking to measure. These baskets will in turn have different  goods in them.

Which index you choose depends on the type of goods being provided:

• Consumer Prices Index (CPI). The CPI is a measure of consumer price inflation. It measures the price level in the economy based on the prices of a collection of goods which are designed to reflect the consumption basket of the average consumer. The CPI, including owner occupiers’ housing costs (CPIH), has been the ONS’s lead inflation index since March 2017.
• Producer Price Index (PPI). The PPI is a measure of price changes in goods bought and sold by UK manufacturers. It is based on three surveys: the Domestic PPI, Export Price Indices and Import Price Indices.
• Service Producer Prices Index (SPPI). The SPPI contains individual price indices which provide information on price change for a limited range of service industries.
• Retail Prices Index (RPI). The RPI is a measure of inflation, but unlike the CPI, it incorporates housing costs. RPI(X) excludes mortgage interest payments, RPI(Y) is adjusted for changes in interest rate and indirect taxes, and RPI(J) uses an alternative calculation method for some prices that is in line with international standards. The RPI is not a national statistic.
• Average Weekly Earnings Index. The Average Weekly Earnings Index indicates short-term changes in earnings.

Once you have chosen which index you will use, you then agree the mechanism for increasing prices such as how often they may be increased, how much notice the supplier needs to give you and what rights you might have if the price goes too high.

The Office for National Statistics (ONS) has published guidance on using indices in indexation clauses (see ONS: Prices: user guidance, methodology and developments).

If you are not sure if your terms need such a clause or if your supplier’s terms already incorporate one, please do get in touch and we can help you.

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Did you know that if a customer is late paying your invoice, you may be entitled to interest on the outstanding amount even if you haven’t expressly said you would charge interest? Not many people know about the law* that implies a term into a contract (i.e. you do not need to expressly state this in your terms & conditions) which does just that and more. It applies in a B2B situation only and entitles you to:

• Interest at 8% over base rate of the Bank of England (currently 2.25% @10th Oct 22) on the amount outstanding from the date payment was due- so roughly 10%; plus
• A fixed sum between £40 and £100 depending on the amount of the debt; plus
• Reasonable costs of recovery of the debt
• On all contracts or terms & conditions for supply of goods & services (note there are some exceptions)

How to calculate the interest on the debt

There is a handy interest calculator here from the Small Business Commissioner.

Understand more about interest

If you want to understand more about what interest is and how it affects the economy, check out the Bank of England’s beginner’s guide

This is just a summary of the law and there are some nuances to check, so please contact us for further details.

* The Late Payment of Commercial Debts (Interest) Act 1998

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What is the UK Recovery Loan Scheme?

The scheme was launched in 2021 initially to help small businesses with the impact of the pandemic by lending them money via group of lenders who in turn had the backing of the government should things go wrong. The good news is that it has been extended by a further two years. So far, the scheme has supported over 16,000 English businesses, as well as 1,000 businesses in Scotland, 600 Welsh businesses and 300 in Northern Ireland.

Examples of businesses which have benefited from the scheme include Leeds-based firm Wildfire Marketing, which used the loan to take on new employees to help the business grow, and White Light Ltd, a lighting firm which required finance to purchase new equipment for the latest West-End shows.

How does it work?

The principle behind the extended Recovery Loan Scheme remains unchanged: government will underwrite 70% of lender liabilities, at the individual borrower level, in return for a lender fee. Lenders must ensure that the benefits of the government guarantee are passed through to businesses.

The maximum loan size remains at up to £2m. However, recognising that businesses and the UK more generally are now in a better position than they were during the pandemic, lenders may now require a personal guarantee from the borrower, in line with standard commercial practice.

UK-based small businesses with a turnover of up to £45 million (including on a group basis, where part of a group) will be eligible to apply.

Key features of the revised RLS include:

• Maximum amounts. Loans can be up to £2 million per business group (or £1 million for borrowers in scope of the Northern Ireland Protocol).
• Term length. Term loans and asset finance facilities are available from three months up to six years, while overdraft and invoice finance are available from three months up to three years.
• Government-backed guarantee. The lender has the advantage of a 70% government backed guarantee against the outstanding balance. The borrower remains 100% liable for the debt.
• Personal guarantees. These can be requested at the lender’s discretion.
• Multiple schemes. Businesses that took advantage of the previous iteration of the RLS, or other COVID-19 related financial support schemes, can still access the revised RLS if they meet the eligibility criteria.

How do I find out more?

Participating lenders will be listed on the British Business Bank website when they are open for applications. Further information is available on the British Business Bank website at: https://www.british-business-bank.co.uk/ourpartners/recovery-loan-scheme/

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I obviously didn’t need to take any legal advice when I started out many years ago, but I did need to buy in other services outside of my skill set – and I know it can be expensive.

Legal advice doesn’t come cheap, but neither should it be unaffordable for businesses without big budgets.

If you’re just starting out, legal advice might seem like a luxury and perhaps something you can do yourself. It’s something I hear all the time and it doesn’t surprise me. Why pay someone else to do a job when you can do it yourself with a legal document you’ve borrowed from someone or found online.

I get it. I really do. But I believe it’s important to get things right from the start, without spending a fortune. And let’s face it, legal advice is best left to the lawyers. How do you know that the terms you are copying are actually correct or indeed right for you? If you were climbing up a cliff face and came across a rope that someone else had left behind, would you put all your faith in it and climb up the rock face with it?

This is where the idea for my ready-made legal documents came from. But, as a well-known high-street retailer would say, these are no ordinary ready-made legal documents!

When I was creating the templates, I knew they needed to be general enough to suit a wide range of business needs, but also tailored to the business buying them. Asking a non-legal mind to adapt an important document just isn’t a good idea – not in my opinion anyway. I’m not saying it can’t be done, but if it isn’t done correctly there’s really no point having it at all. Legal documents aren’t just a box ticking exercise, they exist for a very good reason – to protect your business.

I thought long and hard and eventually had my eureka moment. Customers that bought my ready-made documents would, with my clear direction, tailor it themselves and then pass it back to me to make sure it would stand up in a court of law.

When someone buys my documents, they also buy my time. It’s included in the cost, not an add on, because I think it’s a necessity.

I take great pride in what I do and I want to make sure anyone who invests in my services gets a really good service, particularly when they are starting out and legal advice can seem rather daunting.

Many of my clients have been clients for years. I tend to grow with them and offer advice and support in line with their evolving needs. It works well for both parties and I’m always encouraged by the feedback I receive.

If you’re a start-up business looking for legal support, I’d love to hear from you as I might be just the very thing you’re looking for.

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If there is one thing that truly gets me down as a lawyer, it is people running businesses without proper terms and conditions in place or worse still, blindly signing up to terms without even reading them! You may be thinking to yourself “of course I would never do a thing like that!” However, in the heat of the moment, strange things happen.

Take for example, a multi-million pound company who was so thrilled by the prospect of the orders streaming in, that they didn’t check the terms and conditions and just signed the contract presented to them. Then the market for their goods changed and they found they were locked into accepting orders at a price that meant they made a loss on every order. I was called in to the rescue and imagine their faces when I had to report that the contract had no termination clause and they were locked in forever!

Then there was the case recently of an on-line company that deliberately put a term in their contract that by placing the order the customer thereby sold their soul to the company! This was simply to test whether customers actually read their terms. Surprise, surprise: no one noticed these rather unusual terms and conditions and orders kept streaming in!

SO, please add terms and conditions to your new year’s resolutions and, in particular, only sign up to terms you have read and that you understand.

Are terms and conditions legally binding?

This is a vast topic, but in a nutshell, terms and conditions are legally binding as long as they have been provided to the party concerned BEFORE they agree to the deal or pay. You can do this by providing a tick box with words along the lines of: “I confirm I have read and understood the [Terms of Business]” and provide a link to the actual terms. It is also important to provide a further copy of your terms and conditions in your order confirmation, so that the customer is left in no doubt as to what the terms are.

Here are a few pointers to key provisions you will need as a minimum for your terms and conditions:

What is the term of the contract?

How long do you want to provide your goods or services for?  Do you need a minimum term when both parties are locked in? Will the contract renew automatically, if you don’t let the other side know you want out?

How can the contract be terminated?

Usually, contracts set out four types of circumstances:

• No fault termination: Where neither party is at fault and you simply want to end the relationship. In this case, check how much notice both parties need to give and that the period is long enough to enable you to deal with the change. This is particularly so if you are the supplier and you need to give notice up the supply chain to your own suppliers.
• Termination for breach: Where there is a breach-this is a huge subject in itself, but my simplest advice is to think through all the possible scenarios of what could possibly go wrong and spell out what should happen in that instance. Do not leave it to assumptions. Say what you expect the other side to do to remedy the situation and how much time they have to do so. Are there any breaches which are so serious, that you can terminate instantly? If so, spell out those instances too.
• Change of circumstances: Where there is a change in status e.g. one party goes into liquidation, commits a criminal offence or simply gets ill or dies-often this entitles a party to immediately terminate the contract.
• Force Majeure or ‘Act of God’: this is where something happens that is beyond the control of either party and means that one party is not be able to perform its obligations under the contract. The ash cloud is such an example or even the pandemic in some circumstances. If the situation persists for a certain amount of time-usually 30 days- either party can terminate without being in breach.

What are the payment terms?

If services are involved, customers may ask to pay in stages on completion of certain milestones. In that case, you will need to provide what constitutes acceptance or achievement of the milestone. You also need to state how payment is to be made and what happens if it is late? Is interest chargeable, can either party walk away for breach and/or demand goods back or down tools?

 Don’t forget extras such as delivery costs & VAT – These cannot be added without warning beforehand. If dealing with business customers, you need to state the VAT separately.

 When does ‘risk’ in the goods pass?

Whilst you may be happy to continue to own the goods you supply until you receive payment from the customer, you may wish for the ‘risk’ ( i.e. the legal responsibility in the goods) to pass to the customer the moment they leave the factory. This needs to be clearly pointed out so that they can take out appropriate insurance. Sometimes risk will pass at a later stage e.g. when loaded onto a ship or given to a courier. You may need to consider the internationally recognised INCOTERMS which are a shorthand for different freight situations and determine when risk passes.

 What is each party’s liability if there is a breach?

Most contracts envisage a financial cap and only allow the other side to recover ‘direct losses’ and not ‘consequential losses’. Again, don’t just use these terms on their own; spell out what you consider to be direct loss and what is excluded. There are so many possibilities. Remember also, that you cannot exclude your liability for injury or death as a result of your negligence or for fraud. You may have seen contracts that attempt to do this, but theses clauses are illegal and have no legal standing.

The importance of a terms and conditions lawyer

This article has only touched on a few of the issues with terms and conditions and already you will have seen how many further questions these produce in turn.

It’s important to find a terms and conditions lawyer at the outset of your business dealings rather than when things go wrong. As a commercial lawyer, I often find myself dealing with terms and conditions. Even if you are dealing with a large corporation and it’s a ‘take it or leave it’ situation, I can help point out any red flags so that you know what you are agreeing to. It’s an area I know lots about, so do get in touch if I can help.

A well drafted contract with clear sections for the different stages of the customer journey, should become a handy tool to refer to for you and your staff-just like a recipe book. You may not leaf through your terms and conditions with your mouth watering, but at least you will sleep well:)

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I tend to have two business overhauls twice a year – at the start of autumn, and in spring. I find it quite cathartic and enjoy taking time to think about how I can improve the way we operate.

As the co-founder of a small communications agency, which I set up with my husband Simon during lockdown, I’ve been busy working in the business rather than on the business, so this overhaul is very much needed.

Having ticked all the obvious points off my list, I started thinking about the way we address the challenging conversations that inevitably arise as a growing business, particularly when your business partner is also your life partner. It’s tough. And I imagine it’s the same if you’re working with a family member or a friend. We’ve had our fair share of difficult conversations, but they always end well. Most likely because this is an area we know lots about.

Our agency, 1948, helps businesses shape the conversations that deliver business growth. These might be conversations with current and potential new customers, which is my side of the business, but also conversations within the workplace, which is very much Simon’s domain.

As a former West End actor, Simon has spent the past decade transferring his skills into the business world, helping organisations understand the art of conversation and how small changes, and different ways of thinking, can have a huge impact of outcomes.

He tends to support business on the more challenging, courageous or uncomfortable conversations – the ones that are all too often side-stepped because of the very fact they are more challenging. We call them crucial conversations because they are essential to drive positive change within businesses.

Here are five tips to help you have better conversations. They are simple to implement, and you’ll feel the benefit almost immediately.

Five tips for better conversations with better outcomes:

• Take a deep breath before you start. It might seem simple, but we often forget to breathe, especially if we feel flustered or uncomfortable. Using your breath helps to power your thoughts and remain calm. It also slows you down and helps you find the right pace.
• What is your mindset? If you have negative thoughts about the person or the topic of conversation you will struggle to overcome it. Take control of the conversation by creating a growth mindset that can explore the possibilities and opportunities. Put yourself in the other person’s shoes and see things from their perspective, it really helps.
• Actively listen to what’s being said. If you’re formulating your next words and butting in, it means you’re not listening. Wait until the other person has finished, take a breath, and carry on.
• Choose your language carefully. Will it land well with the person you are speaking to? Think about what you are going to say and, just as importantly, how you are going to say it.
• For important conversations, make sure you take the time to plan what you’re going to say. What questions will you ask? Are they open ended? Make a note of the subject areas to be covered and mentally tick them off as you progress. Don’t read from a script, just be well prepared.

To find out more about 1948’s Crucial Conversations service click here.

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There’s the design to consider, the content and the functionality, but what about legal requirements? Is your lovely new website compliant with the law?

Whilst it is very easy these days to set up online you may not realise that the moment you do so, you have legal obligations and if you fail to comply, you could be fined thousands of pounds and possibly have your business shut down!

Experience tells me the ‘legal stuff’ is never top of the list of priorities, unless of course the business owner is a lawyer like me! But it’s sometimes so far down the list, it’s forgotten about all-together.

Your legal requirements will change as your business grows, but here are the basics you need to cover when you’re starting out:

Is your website legal?

Firstly, make sure you have a proper contract in place with your website developer

It’s important to agree what’s actually included in the cost, such as how many rounds of changes, who is responsible for web hosting and back-ups, and who owns the IP (which must be you!). Is your website developer responsible for ongoing maintenance and support or will this fall to someone else? I’ve heard of disagreements and disputes that have ended up with the website developer locking a client out of their own website, so it really does make sense to have the right agreement in place from the outset.

Then there are four main areas to consider:

Legally required information that MUST be on your website

In the UK and most of the EU, under the E-Commerce and Distance Selling Regulations, you need to provide certain information to your visitors about who you are, your address, what it is you are selling, delivery charges, to name but a few. Most importantly, when dealing with consumers (as opposed to business customers), you need to tell them that they have a right to change their mind!

These are the so-called “cooling-off” rights whereby customers have 14 days after receiving the goods or committing to receiving services, to change their mind . In the case of goods, they can return them to you and get their money back. If its services, they can simply cancel the order.You need to factor this in when thinking about cash flow and add the potential cost of lost postage as you will need to refund the initial postage charges too. There are exceptions for certain products and services, but the bottom line is to check with a lawyer before you sell.

If you are selling goods or digital products, you can get a template Terms of Sale right away from our document shop.

Protecting your website content and liability

You can protect your content and limit your liability for what you publish on your website by having ‘Terms of Use’ on your website. You will usually set these out as a link on every page. Terms of Use will prevent visitors from making unauthorised use of your content or indeed copying it or sharing it. You can add to them depending on the needs of your business and whether you allow users to upload content or not.

You can also use your Terms of Use to limit your liability for the content and any advice that you give on your website. If you need a template set of terms, we have a handy one in our document shop.

Data protection compliance

If you plan to collect the names and addresses (even just email addresses) of your customers in order to process orders or simply send out a newsletter, you will be processing and controlling ‘personal data’ in the eyes of the law. As the law makers want to be sure who is doing this and why, in the UK you need to comply with the UK GDPR and the Data Protection Act 2018. This means registering with the Information Commissioner’s Office and having a Privacy Notice displayed on your website which tells your customers what exactly you are doing with their personal data. Do not be tempted to simply copy someone else’s as they may not have got it right and the penalties are severe (in the millions!).

Cookies (small files hidden in your website code) also collect data. If you have any on your website, you need to warn people and have a separate Cookie Policy.

Protecting your website IP

Ideas and designs, such as your website content and logo, are known legally as ‘intellectual property’. As they are not tangible unlike a car that you can lock up inside garage, there are various ways of protecting them depending on the type of idea involved.

You will automatically own the copyright in the content of your website and any logos. There is no need to register. To highlight who owns the copyright to readers, just use the © symbol and year of creation e.g. © 2014 Joe Bloggs in the footer of your website.

For any logos or trading names, it is a good idea to consider registering them as trademarks. There is an initial cost to do so, but the advantage is that registration is proof of ownership whereas with copyright, you need to prove that you own the marks in question which is not easy and can take up your valuable time. You can register a trademark just for the UK or EU wide or even worldwide! There is of course a cost associated with each.

The Intellectual Property Office has lots of free information to guide you further: www.ipo.gov.uk

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Your website is your all-important shop window to the world

Visitors will form an opinion of your website in a matter of seconds and determine whether they’re going to stay or leave. That’s why your website’s content and layout has to entice your visitors enough to want to stay on the site and learn more about your products and services. In the end, people may invest in a business they can trust, and your website is the cornerstone for that.

Building a website is an exciting part of setting up your own business, and it’s something many people are eager to have up and running as soon as they can. But first things first – your branding.

Create your branding before you do anything else

Why? Because it will flow through everything you do. It must be consistent: from your website to your social channels, business cards and stationery, even your email signature. It will allow you to come up with a colour palette that says the right thing about your business and works for your customers. And it helps you really think about who you are.

When I’m helping a client with their branding, I ask them to fill out a questionnaire, which gets them thinking about many things they might not otherwise consider. For example, it asks about the ‘tone’ of the brand – is it informal, traditional or more corporate? Are they predominantly reaching out to men or women? Who are their competitors and what do their websites look like?

Get this right, and everything else will more naturally fall into place.

Brand bibles tend to sit in the domain of bigger business, but they are important for every business

It doesn’t need to be lengthy – start with the basics of logos, fonts, colours, and the look and feel of images, and add to it as your business grows. This way, your brand will be consistent from the very beginning.

As well as your full colour logo make sure you request it in single colour (black and/or white) and in various different formats including the following:

• JPEG
  For digital use. Small and fast to load on a website, but the compression comes with some loss in quality – this is usually not a problem for photographs, but not so good for text or images containing fine lines.
• PNG
  Also for digital use, but with so-called “lossless” compression. This means the image quality is the same before and after compressiom or each time it is opened and saved again, but a larger file size than JPEG. It’s the best choice for images with text and for designs that require the use of transparency.
• Vector EPS
  For print use, and can be scaled to any size.

Now it’s time for the website

No other medium gives you more control over your brand, so you want to make it work hard.

It must be well-written, easy to read and just as easy to navigate. It also needs to quickly answer questions your potential new customers are likely to have, such as what your business does and how it can help them – and they must be able to find the information easily. If people have to search for it, they will quickly lose interest.

Put yourself in your customer’s shoes

What do they want to quickly see and find out when they visit your website? Make sure you get input from family, friends and colleagues, as when you are so close to something it’s all too easy to ‘unsee’ what’s missing.

It’s also really important to provide instructions such as ‘read this’, ‘watch this’ or ‘click here’ for further information. I’m amazed by the number of businesses who forget to include contact details so make sure you don’t forget ‘contact us’.

Give thought to all of the following

• Which platform are you going to build your website on?

There are so many different platforms to choose from, but my go-to (and in my opinion the best) is WordPress.org, largely because it is suitable for every business and can be easily changed and adapted in line with your needs.

There are two different versions of WordPress – WordPress.com and WordPress.org (also known as self-hosted WordPress) so make sure you understand the clear differences between the two and find out which of them best fits your needs and price range.

The best way to think about the differences between WordPress.com vs. WordPress.org is the analogy of renting a house vs. owning a house. WordPress.com is similar to renting a house. You have limited power and control over what you can and cannot do. WordPress.org is like owning a house, where you have full control, no one can kick you out, and you can do anything you want.

• Who is going to host your website?

It needs to be a reputable hosting company such as Ionos, 123-reg or GoDaddy, and you’ll need a package that covers back-ups so you don’t lose everything. Remarkably not every package covers this!

• Can you easily adapt your website’s functionality?

A plugin is a piece of software – essentially a bit of code that “plugs in” to your self-hosted WordPress site. In human terms, that means a WordPress plugin is something that adds new functionality, or extends the existing functionality on your site. Exactly the same way as apps do for your smartphone.

They are essential for building great websites using WordPress and make everything possible. If the feature is not available in default WordPress, then there is certainly a plugin available. You can select what’s best for your business as it grows. What you don’t need right now, you might need 6 months further down the line.

• Who will update your website and create fresh content?

When your website is up and running it doesn’t stop there – it’s just the beginning!

It’s important to carry out a monthly maintenance check to make sure everything is working as it should. I do this for many of my clients, but it’s fairly straightforward and something you can easily do yourself if you have the time and inclination.

It’s also important to regularly update your website with fresh new content. Not only does Google like this and will rank your website higher in searches, but it gives your customers something new to read when they land on your site. The easiest way to keep your content fresh is by having a blog on your website. It’s a great way of communicating with your customers, building up an audience, increasing traffic to your website and generally making a name for yourself in your industry. If you don’t have the time or skill to do this, make sure you outsource it.

Last but not least – set your budget

A great website doesn’t need to cost a fortune – in fact it shouldn’t. But it does require an investment that, spent well, will continue to give you a return for many years to come

These are just the basics, but hopefully this will help you get on the right track.

The post BUILDING YOUR BRAND AND DEVELOPING YOUR WEBSITE appeared first on offtoseemylawyer.com.

On 26 March 2020 the government made laws* which impose restrictions on most businesses and organisations which deal with the general public and on individuals’ rights of movement and assembly. Many people do not know that there are exceptions to you what you may and may not do. We have highlighted some of them just in case it helps you.

If you are a café or restaurant owner: take away is allowed

You may sell food or drink for consumption off the premises which in turn means you must close off any part of your premises where customers may previously have stayed to eat and drink.

If you are a hotel owner or provide other accommodation (and are allowed to open- see below): room service is allowed.

If you are a market stall owner selling food: that is allowed

Courtesy of Jonathan Kemp Photography

If you own a shop or a library (and are not exempt-see below), you can continue provided you comply with the following restrictions:

• Distance selling only ie you can sell by delivery following receipt of orders by telephone, text, internet order or by post
• You must close any part of your business not needed to carry out the distance selling referred to above
• You must not allow anyone on to your premises unless they are required to carry on the business

Good news! You are exempt from the above restrictions if you run one of these shops or businesses:

• Food retailers, including food markets, supermarkets, convenience stores and corner shops.
• Off licenses and licensed shops selling alcohol (including breweries).
• Pharmacies (including non-dispensing pharmacies) and chemists.
• Newsagents.
• Homeware, building supplies and hardware stores.
• Petrol stations.
• Car repair and MOT services.
• Bicycle shops.
• Taxi or vehicle hire businesses.
• Banks, building societies, credit unions, short term loan providers and cash points.
• Post offices.
• Funeral directors.
• Laundrettes and dry cleaners.
• Dental services, opticians, audiology services, chiropody, chiropractors, osteopaths and other medical or health services, including services relating to mental health.
• Veterinary surgeons and pet shops.
• Agricultural supplies shops.
• Storage and distribution facilities, including delivery drop off or collection points, where the facilities are in the premises of a business which may remain open under these Regulations.
• Car parks.
• Public toilets.

If you provide holiday accommodation, whether in a hotel, hostel, bed and breakfast accommodation, holiday apartment, home, cottage or bungalow, campsite, caravan park or boarding house, you may continue if it is to:

• Provide accommodation for any person, who:
  • is unable to return to their main residence;
  • uses that accommodation as their main residence;
  • needs accommodation while moving house; or
  • needs accommodation to attend a funeral
• Provide accommodation or support services for the homeless.
• Host blood donation sessions.
• Fulfil any purpose requested by the Secretary of State, or a local authority.

We hope these tips help you

Stay safe!

*The Health Protection (Coronavirus, Restrictions) (England) Regulations 2020 (SI 2020/350) (Regulations)

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