Coronavirus

Help for residents

• Colleagues across our teams continue to work hard to provide the services our residents need and expect. 
• Service areas such as our customer services and housing support teams are operating and answering queries. Residents can make contact with the Council by email or on 01529 414155. Please only call if it is absolutely essential. For more information, see our residents page.
• While our reception and front-facing contact centre at our Council offices in Sleaford remain closed, there are procedures in place to ensure vulnerable people can get help.
• After lockdown began, we wrote to 11,000 residents in our District who could be vulnerable and struggling in silence with a letter offering advice and links to support. 
• We followed up these letters with calls from our officers, to check in with these residents and ensure they are getting the help they need and answers to any worries or concerns they may have.
• We redeployed colleagues to help make these calls. Our Development and Economic Cultural Services, Democratic Services, Environment and Public Protection, Corporate Community Services and Housing and Property teams have all given up time to help, in addition to their daily workload as a priority. 
• All tenants in Council properties, including those in Lafford Homes properties, were also written to with information and details of the support available at this time, should it be needed. 
• 2,000 of these tenants have had follow-up calls and/or visits from our housing teams (adhering to our strict guidelines on contact) to make sure they are coping during Coronavirus. 
• We’re continuing to work closely with partners to identify and provide urgent help to the most vulnerable in our communities.
• Additional measures are in place to accommodate any person found to be rough sleeping or without any accommodation available to them at this time. If you require emergency assistance, please contact the Housing Options Team on 01529 414155 Monday-Friday, by email to housingoptions@n-kesteven.gov.uk or call 01529 308308 out of hours. 
• We are working with our housing tenants to ensure rent can easily be paid via direct debit or by phone, and have created a tenant hardship fund. 
• If you’re a housing tenant with us and have concerns about struggling to pay your rent, please call your housing officer via our main Council phone number who can discuss the options available.
• Together with our contractors we are ensuring emergency repairs requested by our tenants, for example hot water failure or a similar risk to health, are prioritised. In the event that repairs like these are needed, our contractors will discuss individual circumstances with the tenants so repairs can be carried out in the safest way possible for all. Similarly, we are ensuring that capital works to Council properties which are essential to health and safety of our tenants are a priority at this time.
• It is essential that we continue to carry out gas safety checks for our housing tenants. Our contractor will contact tenants to make an appointment and discuss how this can be done with individual circumstances in mind during Coronavirus.

Communities and wellbeing

• Working with Lincolnshire County Council, Wellbeing Lincs and the Lincolnshire Resilience Forum, we’ve been helping provide the vital link between community groups, charities and parish councils with residents who need community help. To request community help see the Lincolnshire County Council website or call 01522 782189.
• Together with the Lincolnshire Resilience Forum we’ve worked to validate community groups in our area, helping complete all the necessary checks and identify how best they can be supported.
• More than 5,500 people have been assisted through Wellbeing Lincs and linked to the appropriate support, including community efforts in North Kesteven. Requests for help are now tailing off, but have included access to household supplies and regular prescriptions. 

Council Tax support 

• The Government has announced funding available to councils to help provide support to residents experiencing hardship. You can find out more about this on our recent Council Tax update document.
• Residents can also check whether they are entitled to any discounts on our Council Tax webpages.
• Whilst we appreciate this is a difficult time, the Council still needs funds in order to provide the essential services that it provides to support its residents. However, if you are unable to pay your Council Tax during this time, you can consider:
  • Making a claim for Council Tax Support - this is means-tested based upon the income you receive. Details of this and how to claim can be found on our Council Tax webpages. 
  • Delay some of your payments. If you normally pay over ten months, you could opt to move your two free months to the start, rather than the end of the year. Or you could move some of your payments to later in the year. Email the Council Tax service on counciltax@lincoln.gov.uk (Please be sure to include your name, address and account number) or call us on 01529 414155 to discuss the options available to you. Please be patient with us at this time, as we are experiencing higher levels of calls because of increased demand on services at this time.

 Assistance for businesses

• Since Coronavirus began, our officers have been deciphering emerging Government guidance and the latest on grants and support schemes to help provide advice for businesses. You can find out the latest support for businesses and contact the team via the  BusinessNK website.
• We share a dedicated e-newsletter with businesses with the latest information, news and support which businesses can sign up for on our stay connected webpage, and updates on social media @BusinessNK.
  
• The Council also offers the services of a Business Support Advisor, Phil Means. His details can be found on the BusinessNK website.
• We’ve distributed over 1,170 grants totalling almost £20 million to businesses eligible for the Government’s Small Business Grant and Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant, and helped businesses apply for these funds.
• We’ve also distributed a subsequent discretionary fund for those businesses not eligible for either the Small Business Grant or the Retail, Hospitality and Leisure Grant. Our BusinessNK team again assisted businesses through the application process. 
• We produced materials including postersto save shops and businesses valuable time and resources while preparing to comply with Government Covid Secure guidelines.
• We’ve installed social distancing signage in open spaces with high footfall, such as Sleaford Town Centre, and provided signage where needed to assist our leisure operators. 

Environmental health 

• We’ve advised a range of businesses, including pubs, cafes, restaurants and more, to help them interpret Government guidance on the Covid Secure measures essential to trading once more.  
• During lockdown we provided guidance to those businesses were restricted on trade, such as pubs, café and restaurants, which expanded into takeaway deliveries during lockdown. As part of this work, we helped ensure they met food regulations in order to protect themselves and the public. 
• At this current time, there are no immediate impacts on the way in which we collect and empty your bins and how that waste and recycling is handled. There’s more on our waste webpages. 
• Households where residents are self-isolating are being asked to follow the below advice when disposing of household waste. In line with the advice from Public Health England, personal waste (such as used tissues) and disposable cleaning cloths should be:
  • disposed of securely within disposable rubbish bags.
  • placed into another bag, tied securely and kept separate from other waste.
  • put aside for at least 72 hours before being put in your black bin.
  Other household waste can be disposed of as normal. It is extremely important that tissues are NOT put in recycling bins.

Key service updates

• At this current time, there are no immediate impacts on the way in which we collect and empty your bins and how that waste and recycling is handled. There’s more on our waste webpages. 
• Where services have been temporarily suspended, we have relocated the teams that would ordinarily carry out this work to support other essential services during this difficult time.
• Households where residents are self-isolating are being asked to follow the below advice when disposing of household waste. In line with the advice from Public Health England, personal waste (such as used tissues) and disposable cleaning cloths should be:
  
  • disposed of securely within disposable rubbish bags.
  • placed into another bag, tied securely and kept separate from other waste.
  • put aside for at least 72 hours before being put in your black bin.
  Other household waste can be disposed of as normal. It is extremely important that tissues are NOT put in recycling bins.

From 24 July, face coverings must be worn in enclosed public spaces, including shops, supermarkets, shopping centres, enclosed transport hubs, and in takeaways, cafes and shops if you are buying food and drink to take away. They are already required when using public transport. Restaurants, pubs and gyms are exempt, and face masks will not be mandatory for anyone under age 11 and those with disabilities or certain health conditions that make it difficult to wear a face covering.

Further information and guidance is available on the Gov.uk website:

• Face coverings mandatory in shops, supermarkets, shopping centres and enclosed transport hubs from Friday
• Face coverings: when to wear one and how to make your own
• How to make a cloth face covering

To report an incident of non-compliance, please contact the Police by phoning 101.

We know that the need to self-isolate can cause financial pressures for those on low incomes and the self employed. As a result of this the Government is providing a new Test and Trace Support Payment of a £500 lump sum payment for those on low incomes to support them if they cannot work during their self-isolation period. Find out more information on our Coronavirus isolation payments webpage.