Richmond Council has been shortlisted for the Small Business Friendly Borough Awards for their Phoenix Enterprise Support Programme.

The Programme was set up in response to the pandemic and offers free business support for start-up and early-stage growth businesses.

It focused on sectors particularly badly hit by lockdown and, so far, has supported 800 local businesses, of which 337 are start-ups and 462 established Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs).

The nature of the support was varied, but has included business health checks, webinars and Q&A sessions, peer focus groups and networking events as well as over 120 one-to-one personal mentoring sessions.

The Council has also provided support for the high street by funding e-trading platform MyTown which allowed 66 retailers to make sales online when health restrictions limited foot traffic in town.

The purpose of the awards is to celebrate initiatives created by local London authorities to support small and micro businesses, especially providing help during the pandemic.

The awards are open to all 32 London boroughs and the winners will be announced on February 16.

Cllr Richard Baker, Lead Member for Business and Growth, said: "Supporting small businesses remains a priority for this Council. The pandemic has been a particularly difficult period for our small independent retailers who are the life blood of our high streets.

"The Phoenix Enterprise Support Programme has helped our local businesses and retailers who began trading during the pandemic to find their feet and helped other businesses pivot their business models to survive and thrive throughout the pandemic.

"If you are a small business, I would encourage you to join the Phoenix network and tap into the local networking from other small businesses."

Find out more about the Phoenix Enterprise Support Programme here