Over 250 councils entered the Federation of Small Businesses’ (FSB) inaugural Local Government awards, and Norfolk County Council emerged triumphant in the East of England region.
Local authorities from across England responded to the call when FSB launched their inaugural Local Government awards sponsored by Maybe*, which were aimed at celebrating and recognising councils that had made the biggest impact on local SMEs during the Covid crisis and beyond.
Norfolk County Council was crowned East of England regional champion in the Covid Support and Recovery category, with judges being impressed by the Council’s proactive work to help small businesses impacted by Covid-19, through their Employer Training Incentive Programme (ETIP). Through ETIP, the Council paid out over £300,000 of grants, delivering 1689 training interventions to help businesses diversify or upskill their staff.
Candy Richards, FSB, presenting the award to Ruth Royle, Employment and Skills Project Manager at Norfolk County Council
Cllr Graham Plant, Norfolk County Council cabinet member for growing the economy, said: “We are proud to have won this award from the Federation of Small Businesses, recognising our support for local businesses during the challenging time we all faced. We are also incredibly proud of the resilience of our Norfolk business base and their commitment to their teams in engaging with the ETIP scheme, which fundamentally made this such a success.”
Candy Richards, FSB Development Manager for East Anglia, said “It is really pleasing to see Norfolk County Council rewarded for their hard work and determination to help Norfolk small businesses through a very challenging couple of years, when many businesses battled to survive through the Covid lockdowns. With small firms having to adapt and reset during this period, ETIP helped many emerge from the pandemic stronger and more resilient.
“The scheme really was the blueprint for how business support should be delivered. It was easy to apply for, flexible, and focused on ensuring businesses got the support they needed. And the team went out of their way to make sure as many small businesses as possible signed up for the scheme.
“The quality and quantity of entries for our FSB Local Government Awards from councils across the East of England was incredibly high, so Norfolk County Council should feel particularly proud to be crowned the regional winner.”