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ACT parent company Bira responds to Prime Minister's 'Bobbies on the Beat' plan

11 Apr 2025

Bira has cautiously welcomed the Prime Minister's announcement this week on plans to put 'thousands of Bobbies back on the Beat' with a new neighbourhood policing guarantee.
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ACT parent company Bira warns of 'Atrocious April' as shop price inflation rises

1 Apr 2025

Bira has voiced serious concerns over the latest figures from the BRC-NIQ Shop Price Index for March 2025.
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ACT parent company Bira says Spring Statement fails to address high street crisis

26 Mar 2025

ACT parent company Bira has said the Chancellor's Spring Statement delivered today has failed to address the "perfect storm" of cost pressures facing independent retailers across the UK,... Read more…

ACT parent company Bira outlines key priorities ahead of Spring Budget

25 Mar 2025

ACT parent company Bira has outlined its key priorities ahead of the Chancellor's Spring Budget statement.
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Bristol-based cycling charity Life Cycle now offering Cytech training courses

20 Mar 2025

Cytech, the internationally recognised training and accreditation scheme for bicycle mechanics, have partnered with Bristol-based charity Life Cycle to offer a range of bicycle mechanic... Read more…

High street 'death knell' – indie retailers, including cycle shops, shutting doors ahead of April tax rises

12 Mar 2025

Towns and cities across Britain are already seeing a wave of closures as independent businesses shut their doors ahead of April’s triple tax burden, including those in the cycling retail... Read more…

Research shows UK businesses hiring more as consumer confidence lifts

5 Mar 2025

New research has revealed a recent uptick in UK consumer confidence, leading to increased hiring by businesses, with the retail sector responding positively to signs of economic resilience.
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Independent cycle shop becomes first retailer to stock new local bike brand

28 Feb 2025

Independent cycling retailer and ACT member Velo Fit has become the first to stock a new brand of bikes focused on combining quality and affordability.
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Bira cautiously welcomes new crime and policing bill to tackle retail crime across high street businesses

26 Feb 2025

ACT parent company Bira has cautiously welcomed Labour's Crime and Policing Bill but is calling for urgent action and immediate funding to address the surge in retail crime affecting independent... Read more…

Bira warns of 'troubled times ahead' despite interest rate cut

7 Feb 2025

ACT parent company Bira has warned that retailers across Britain face troubled times ahead despite today's Bank of England interest rate cut to 4.5%, as the Bank halves its growth forecast for... Read more…

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Help to Grow Scheme due to launch in October - register your interest now

Posted on in Business News, Cycles News

BEISSalisbury high street have reached out to IRC orgs, including the ACT, to seek help getting the message across to SMEs to register interest in the scheme.

Help to Grow: Digital is a new UK-wide scheme to help up to 100,000 UK SMEs over three years to adopt digital technologies that are proven to increase firm-level productivity.   ​​

The Chancellor announced Help to Grow: Digital at Budget 2021 on 3 March and the scheme will be launched in autumn 2021. ​​

Help to Grow: Digital will offer free impartial advice and guidance via an online platform to help SMEs identify their digital technology needs, assess technology purchasing options and implement new technologies in their operations.​​

Help to Grow: Digital will also offer SMEs a voucher covering up to half of the costs of preapproved, new-to-firm digital technology solutions up to a maximum of £5,000. ​​

The voucher will be available to UK businesses with between 5 and 249 employees that have been trading for more than 12 months. ​​

The voucher will initially provide financial discounts to SMEs for digital customer relationship management, accountancy and e-commerce solutions.​​

 

Vision for Help to Grow: Digital

Tackling part of UK productivity gap by driving successful SME take up of productivity enhancing software

Creating opportunities for SMEs that have already adopted technology during Covid 19 to go further in their digital journey

Providing a slick customer experience that brings a fragmented technology market into one place

Improving the adoption rate of technology from the current ca. 50%.

 

Objectives for Help to Grow: Digital

  1. Provide Value for Money and measurable impact
  2. Tackle SME financial barriers to tech adoption
  3. Tackle SME information barriers to tech adoption
  4. Make it easy for SMEs to access advise and support
  5. Support and incentivise the existing digital technology market to better work for SMEs

 

For more information or to register your interest, please visit helptogrow.campaign.gov.uk/.

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