The Business Exchange Bath & Somerset Issue 17: Autumn 2020 | Page 6

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I Love Local
A new campaign has been launched in Bath & North East
Somerset to encourage people to support local shopping areas.
‘I Love Local’ has been devised by Bath & North East
Somerset Council together with Invest in Bath, Visit Bath
and Bath Business Improvement District (BID) to support
retail businesses and promote the message that it’s safe
to go back to our high streets.
The campaign aims to reinforce public health
messaging around social distancing and hand hygiene at
the same time as encouraging people to shop locally by
championing local shops and businesses.
The campaign kicked off in August with the launch of
I Love Widcombe and campaign tools have been made
available to all our high streets, market towns and
city centre shopping areas across Bath & North East
Somerset.
Flags have been installed at each #ilovelocal location
and items including facemasks and tote bags bearing the
APPLY FOR THE BUSINESS
INNOVATION FUND
area’s branding are available for people to buy. B&NES
Council Leader, Dine Romero, said, “There are so many
great retailers and independent businesses on each of
our local high streets, from butchers to greengrocers,
ironmongers to coffee shops and we are here to support
and champion them. I’m very excited about our I Love
Local campaign as it will foster community spirit and
pride in our high streets for residents and businesses
alike, which is much needed as we collectively recover
from the impact of lockdown. We must also continue to
promote public health messages so I would underline
that we should all continue to social distance and sanitise
hands as we explore what our high streets have to offer.
“Although we’ve started in Widcombe to show what
can be done, we are encouraging local high streets and
shopping areas across the towns and villages that serve
New help for businesses to get their cutting-edge ideas off
the drawing board and into reality has been launched by
West of England Mayor Tim Bowles.
our communities to get involved. I think everyone has a
story of how their local shops have helped them during
lockdown and we want to do everything we can to help our
local centres reopen safely.”
The I Love Local campaign is funded by the European
Regional Development Fund through the Reopening the
High Streets Safely Fund. For more information visit:
www.ilovelocal.info
Join in the conversation on social using the hashtag
#ILoveLocal @bathnes and post your photos and videos.
Whether you’re a local organisation, business group
or charity, we need your help to reach local audiences
asking them to support your area’s #ILoveLocal
campaign.
The Business Innovation Fund can award grants to eligible
businesses and partner them with the West of England’s
world-leading research institutions to progress research,
development and innovation.
The three-year programme, managed by the West of
England Combined Authority (WECA), will help small and
medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) to develop innovative
new products, processes and services to fulfil market
demand.
News of the new fund was welcomed by the West
of England Regional Recovery Taskforce, which met
earlier this month to work on the regional recovery plan,
focussing on business recovery, skills, employment and
infrastructure and places. Business leaders welcomed
the fact that the actions are being taken quickly to address
some of the immediate and long-term challenges being
faced during Covid-19.
WECA Mayor, Tim Bowles, said, “The West of England
has a terrific track record for producing innovative and
imaginative ideas. research, development and innovation
6 www.tbebathandsomerset.co.uk
can help your business adapt for the future and get
ahead of the competition, create new products, processes
and services to reach new customers, and improve
sustainability and productivity.
“Investment in innovation is critical to business survival
and driving growth. I’m making sure that our innovative
“The fund is the latest in a package of
measures I’ve announced to help support
our region’s economy and people’s jobs
following the Coronavirus pandemic”
companies get the support they need to not only come
through the challenges presented by Covid-19 but to build
back better. My Business Innovation Fund will help by
providing small firms with bespoke support to bring new
products, services and processes to market, making the
most of future opportunities in growth areas.”
The Business Innovation Fund will provide funding
of either £20,000 or £50,000 for projects in a range of
business sectors – as well as offering support to help firms
move from concept to commercialisation. It offers funding
and support for SMEs based in the West of England,
covering Bath & North East Somerset, Bristol, North
Somerset and South Gloucestershire.
Tim added, “The Business Innovation Fund is the latest
in a package of measures I’ve announced to help support
our region’s economy and people’s jobs following the
Coronavirus pandemic. As we start to see the scale of the
challenge facing us, it’s more important than ever that the
right help is in place to help our businesses rebuild.”
Please visit www.westofengland-ca.gov.uk/business
for more details, or speak to WECA’s West of England
Growth Hub Enterprise Executives about the Business
Innovation Fund and the range of business support
available in the region.